Moved By You
by MyShipsAreLove
Summary: Mark/Lexie. Takes place after "Stairway to Heaven". Some actual Grey's stories may not be included. Grey's Anatomy and all the characters belong to Shonda, ABC and the writers.
1. Chapter 1

**So I'm really in love with couple. I just had a few ideas and felt like writing. It takes place after 5x13. Some storylines may not be mentioned and won't be a part of the fics development. I hope you guys can enjoy and understand anyway :D**

*****

Lexie lost track of time as she was caressing Mark's hair. She removed her head from its current position, resting on Mark's, to realize he had fallen asleep. Lexie smiled to herself and got up from bed as quietly and carefully as she could. She didn't want to wake him up. Standing there for several minutes, Lexie contemplated the scene right before her. She bent down and kissed Mark's forehead and then she walked to the door.

"Thank you." Lexie said as she walked into Sadie right outside the room.

"No problem." Sadie replied smiling. "So?" she was curious.

"So?" Lexie asked.

Sadie gave her a _you know what _look.

Lexie couldn't help but smile.

"I just apologized for injuring him and…well, kept him company for a while."

"Right" was Sadie's response. A skeptical look on her face.

"I can't believe you" Lexie said surprised. "he is just recovering from…" she paused "…how can you be thinking about that? I couldn't possibly."

Sadie laughed. "See, that exact reaction there confirms all my suspicions."

"Hey, what's up?" Callie came over.

"Lexie couldn't leave Mark alone to rest not even for a few hours" Sadie answered. "No wonder she broke him."

Lexie turned scarlet. "I did no such thing" she said "I mean, I didn't do anything _right now._"

Callie laughed. "Oh, God Lexie, couldn't you at least wait until he was fully recovered? If you keep things like this, Mark will never leave this room" Callie pointed at the door.

Lexie could feel her whole face burning. "I…excuse me, please" she walked away from the two doctors as fast as she could.

"Torturing her?" Callie asked Sadie.

"I needed a little laugh today."

They both smiled and walked away together.

*

Mark woke up with a bang at the door.

"Sorry" Hunt said, realizing he had disturbed Mark's sleep.

Mark looked around and noticed Lexie was no longer there. He sighed and turned his gaze to Hunt.

"I think you've had enough rest." Hunt said.

"Great, can I leave now?" Mark asked.

"I don't see a reason not to" Hunt replied. "if there's any, hm, _problem, _you can look for me" Hunt said. Mark could've sworn he heard a tone of sarcasm in Owens' statement. He just kept staring at Hunt, his expression unreadable.

"Oh and one last thing as precaution" Hunt stated. "stay away from interns" he smiled wryly.

"WHAT?" Mark felt his insides freezing.

Hunt just looked at him.

"You know, keep it to yourself for a while"

Mark rolled his eyes and got off of bed. He decided not to say anything about Hunt's remark on the interns. When he talked to Lexie, he'd learn what Owen was talking about.

"Thank you for your help, Dr. Hunt" he said.

Owen just nodded and walked away.

Mark changed his clothes and when he saw the coast was clear, he left the room.

*

Mark felt terrible as he was walking through the hospital's corridors. People were either smiling or turning to face the other way once they saw him coming.

"I hate this hospital" Mark thought. He was wondering how was it possible that all those people knew about his incident. It was obvious they knew, otherwise they wouldn't be behaving like that. But how?

"Mark?" said a familiar voice.

"Wonderful" Mark said in an inaudible tone.

He turned around to face Derek but said nothing.

"Dude" Derek broke the silence "how did this happen?"

"Yes Derek, I'm fine, thanks" was Mark's response.

"Oh, don't be a baby" Derek laughed. "Hunt told me it was all under control"

"Good, did he happen to say that in a loudspeaker?" Mark was annoyed.

"Hey, I'm your best friend here. Why are you being so touchy-feely about this?"

"I'm not being touchy-feely. I just think a little discretion would be appreciated" Mark scuffled. "Look at how they are looking at me! This whole hospital knows" Mark pointed out.

"I'm sorry about that but Dr. Hunt and Dr. Torres were extremely discreet. They couldn't help that the interns witnessed the whole thing. You _know_ interns." Derek concluded. "As a matter of fact, I'd say you _really_ know interns." Derek laughed.

Mark felt uncomfortable.

"What?" he was motionless.

"Well, she kind of said it out loud in front of all the interns she was responsible for it. Hence why all the hospital knows."

"She did what?" Mark was taken aback.

"Don't be shy, Mark. She's just a little free-spirited." Derek was amused.

"You're not mad?" Mark was confused.

"Why would I be mad?" Derek felt the same way.

_I've said to much_. Mark thought_. Damn it_

They looked at each other uncomfortably. Derek was the one to break the silence.

"I always thought Sadie was a little wild but I didn't see this one coming"

Mark froze right before Derek. _What the hell?_ he thought. He smiled awkwardly. All he wanted was to get out of there.

"Look man, I should get going now." Derek granted Mark's wish. "how long will you be off?"

"I don't think I'll be taking any time off at all" Mark replied. "I feel fine. Besides, Hunt told me the treatment is, well…abstain."

"Ouch" Derek laughed.

Mark rolled his eyes. "I'm not a maniac, you know?"

Derek just laughed and started walking away. "Get better, man. See you later". He turned left and disappeared behind the walls.

Mark needed time to process the whole thing. _Sadie?_ he thought. _Well, at least they didn't find out about Lexie. And to think I was stupid enough to ask Derek is he wasn't mad._

"Good one, Sloan. That was close" he said to himself.

*

Mark was walking down the hall when he saw Lexie enter the locker room. He looked around to make sure no one was watching. Noticing there wasn't anyone, he walked over to the room and locked the door.

Lexie had already changed and was picking her bag from the locker when she realized he had entered the room.

"Hey" she said with her sweet voice, somewhat surprised to see him there. "are you feeling better?" Lexie looked concerned.

Mark nodded sympathetically. Lexie hated the silence. It made her feel very insecure. She was afraid Mark thought she had gone too far with the whole _stroking the hair_ thing.

"Mark, I'm really, really sorry" Lexie said with sad eyes. She was apologizing for both injuring him in the first place and crossing the line, as she thought.

Mark had never experienced something like that before. For the second time that night, Lexie was showing how caring and worried she was. The sincerity in her words and actions were definitely messing with something inside of him.

"You don't need to apologize." Mark said sweetly. "it wasn't your fault…really."

Lexie smiled. She concluded, by what he was saying, that he wasn't mad about her climbing into bed with him.

Both stood silent for a couple of seconds. Mark felt a rush of cold while briefly remembering Lexie's hands touching his forehead. He spoke, trying to get that funny feeling away from his stomach.

"So, people think…hm…Sadie and me?" Mark looked dumbfounded.

"The other interns were being very insensitive about it. Making jokes while you were lying there in the OR table…"

Mark felt overwhelmed for the 3rd time in less than 6 hours. Lexie's concern for his welfare moved him.

"…so when I told them to shut up about it they said I knew something, that it was me." Lexie took a breath. "So, Sadie barged in."

Mark smiled. "You know, I almost told on us today. Derek was speaking in a very tricky way."

Lexie smiled awkwardly. The way he spoke hurt her a little. She felt as if it would be a horrible thing if people knew about them. Sometimes she even thought Mark didn't want anyone to know because there was nothing going on between them at all in his point of view.

"What?" Mark's smile vanished.

"Nothing" Lexie tried to show poise.

Mark started walking over to her but was interrupted by someone unsuccessfully trying to enter the locker room because of the locked door.

Lexie sighed and went over to open the door while Mark drove himself to a second locked door. He turned the key to unlock the it and glanced at Lexie one last time before leaving the room.

*****


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you JAM1104, krista27, Loo :*, lostie21, CarmGonzalez and mcmiller.**

**This chapter is slightly smaller than the first. I wanted to leave the Mark/Lexie part for later. A little thing to look forward to.**

*

When Lexie finally managed to get rid of all the interns who entered the locker room, questioning her about Sadie and Sloan, she walked as fast as she could to Joe's. That day had gone from awesome to bad and back to extraordinary when Mark's surgery was at last over. But that little time she still had to spend in the hospital in order to finish her shift after she left Mark's room was not going well and she needed some distraction.

Joe's was crowded. Derek, Meredith, Sadie, Callie and Mark were all seated at the same table. Derek was joking about Mark and Sadie, leaving Mark highly uncomfortable while Sadie was joking along.

"Don't be shy, Mark" she had said. "It's out there…the truth, I mean." Sadie laughed. "We can't take it back now."

Callie forced a smile. Mark wanted to kill Sadie with his eyes.

Derek spotted Lexie coming in and heading to the bar. He shouted and signed for her to join them. Meredith frowned. Callie's eyes met Mark's and widened. He whished he could disappear. Sadie didn't seem to care at all.

Lexie, seeing the table's crowd, tried to escape but she didn't know what to say as a reason to leave. So she hesitantly walked over.

"Hey" she said in a low tone.

"Won't you join us?" Derek said excitedly.

Lexie looked down at them. Derek sweetly pinched Meredith under the table.

"Yeah, Lexie. Take a seat" Meredith felt obligated to say.

Lexie sat between Sadie and Callie. Meredith to Sadie's right, Mark to Callie's left.

"Tequila?" Callie offered.

Lexie just nodded. "Thanks."

"We were just talking about today's previous events" Derek said gazing at Sadie and then Mark. "Did you hear that Sadie br…"

"Oh, yeah" Lexie cut, laughing nervously. "_That_!" she completed.

She felt like she had a knot on her throat. Mark didn't have the courage to look at her. He gave Derek a death look.

"Derek, just drop it" Mark scuffled. He was visibly nervous as he took a sip of his scotch.

"You are acting way too protective about this" Derek concluded.

Mark hit the glass in the table. "Really, Derek? Really?" Mark grunted. He couldn't believe his friend was talking about his personal life like that as if he were talking about a successful surgery.

"This is _my _business, OK?" Mark continued. "I don't want the whole world to know about it."

There was tension in the table. Mark spotted from the corner of his eyes that Lexie was as uncomfortable as him.

Suddenly, there was an expression in Derek's face. It was as if he had just figured out something huge. "Wait a minute…."

Everybody at the table exchanged glances expect Lexie and Mark. They still couldn't face each other.

"…you two have been doing this for a while, haven't you?" Derek continued.

The faces turned to Derek. Lexie took a sip of her tequila so quick she burned her throat. Callie didn't know what to do.

"It wasn't just today" Derek said as if he was putting the pieces together.

Mark felt his blood boiling. "Derek, stop!" He said with an altered tone.

"I now see why you are so defensive about it" Derek ignored his friend's request.

Lexie wished she could push a button and simply vanish. She couldn't believe how things turned out to be so screwed.

"Yes…" Derek resumed. "…when Karev had his solo surgery I called you like a thousand times and there was no answer. _AND _Sadie wasn't home that night."

Lexie felt as though her insides had dropped. _No, please don't go THERE._ She thought. Mark pleaded for help with his eyes to Callie. Sadie, for the first time, seemed to be paying attention.

"Oh my. I just remembered something else."

Callie held her breath. Lexie took another glass, filled it with tequila and drank the whole content immediately. Mark wanted to apologize to Lexie more than anything. Meredith seemed annoyed. She got up asking to be excused, went over to Cristina's table and sat with her.

"…yes, it makes perfect sense" Derek continued. "When you left the house that day at 4 in the morning, claiming you wanted to have drinks, you were totally with Sadie, weren't you?"

Sadie was panicking inside and regretting terribly the jokes she had been making earlier. Lexie felt like screaming. If he could, Mark would cover his mouth with his hand.

"Oh, Gosh" Derek just couldn't stop talking. "Are you guys _serious_?"

"What?" Mark wished he was dreaming, sleeping in Lexie's company while she stroked his hair.

Lexie couldn't take it anymore. Between having an uncomfortable discussion with Mark in the locker room and having to hear all sorts of jokes coming from the interns a few minutes after that, she never thought things could possibly get any worse. She felt absolutely no control over her feelings. All she had wanted when she entered Joe's was to get a couple of drinks and forget about her last hours in the hospital. Definitely not _that_.

"Excuse me" she said standing up unsteadily, her voice failing. "It's my cell phone.I have to go. Good night" she said not pausing.

"Good night, Lexie" Derek replied alone.

Mark felt something he had never felt before. Helplessness. The fact that Lexie was hurting was affecting him. He wanted to stand up and go after her.

Callie squeezed Mark's hand under the table. She felt powerless.

"You don't have to be ashamed Mark, you know…to be serious about this."

Mark had had it. He stood up not thinking and gathered all his energy.

"Derek, shut the hell up!"

Derek looked taken aback. People at Joe's seemed to be staring. Mark grabbed his coat and walked rapidly to the door.

*

"What did I do?" Derek was confused.

Callie and Sadie exchanged glances. They wished they could tell, but it was Lexie's and Mark's business. They didn't want to cause trouble, especially since they both knew Derek had requested _Sloan to stay away from Little Grey._

Meredith walked over astonished.

"What was that about?"

Derek explained how he had brilliantly figured out Mark and Sadie were in a serious relationship and how Mark had snapped about it. Meredith listened closely but there was something about his story that just didn't click. _I know what it is._

"But Mark wasn't with Sadie the day your mother came over." Meredith interrupted. "Sadie was with us the whole time."

Sadie panicked at the thought of them concluding it was Lexie then, since she was the only person left in the house that wasn't present and because of the way she had left Joe's so abruptly after the subject was brought up. So she jumped in.

"But Dr. Sloan never entered the house" she tried to remain calm. "we were all there, the whole night. There was no knock" to Sadie's relief, Meredith confirmed.

Sadie explained what she was doing out in the day of Alex's surgery and Derek looked beyond confused.

"So it really was just a one time thing?" He asked Sadie.

"Yep"

"So why didn't you guys say anything? And why was Mark so upset?"

Sadie's expression was of horror. She had no idea what to say. Callie spoke as she felt the urge to help.

"I guess everything went on so fast that before Sadie or Mark could say anything, the matter...hmm...evolved. But in a bad way"

Derek's look was enough for Callie's understandment. He was not following. Callie sighed.

"What I mean is you started listing all these things about how Mark and Sadie were serious so fast that before any of them could say anything you kind of changed the subject. The way you were speaking, the surprise in your voice. It was as if this was beyond your belief. Like it was not really happening. I guess that's why Mark was so upset."

Derek felt appalled.

Callie was just happy Derek bought it. She breathed out since she had spoken in a roll.

"I'm a terrible friend, aren't I?" Derek was feeling like crap.

"Don't be so hard on yourself. These things happen. Just wait until the anger is gone and I'm sure you guys will work it out."

"Yeah" Derek said, his voice low.

After a few minutes of silence and awkwardness, Meredith, Derek, Callie and Sadie all stood up and said their goodbyes. They just wanted to have a good night sleep subsequent what had been a long day.

*


	3. Chapter 3

**I'm so sorry guys I took so long to update. I had written a whole chapter but when I came to read it I didn't like the final result that much so I started zero.**

**I loved last episode. We can see that Mark has fallen for Lexie. That is so adorable *_*. The episode kind of inspired me for this chapter.**

**Thank you for all your reviews! That means a lot to me. **

**Ok so now here it goes, the moment we've all been waiting for. ML interaction at last.**

*****

Mark walked passed the parking lot and noticed Lexie's car was still there. _She hasn't gone far_. He looked for her everywhere possible near Joe's. All the streets, all the alleys, all the coffee shops. She wasn't anywhere to be found. He walked back to Joe's and, this time, her car was no longer there. _Damn it._

Mark continued his search. He tried the hospital. She wasn't there. He even drove to Meredith's house and when he finally managed to enter unoticed and get to the attic he realized Lexie wasn't there either. There was nothing else he could do. He left Meredith's house quietly and drove back to his apartment building.

When he crossed the door to the main entrance and made his way to the elevator, Mark heard the voice he hadn't heard all night.

"Mark?"

He turned around slowly and was stunned.

"Lexie!?" there was a quick pause. "You've been here the whole time?"

Lexie nodded.

Mark walked over to her and led them to a place where they could speak more privately.

"Look..." they said at the same time.

They both laughed awkwardly.

"You first" Mark continued.

Lexie hesitated.

"Listen" she said calmly "I really like _this. _Whatever it is." she said that last part quickly. "But I...I just can't" she was still.

"What do you mean?" Mark struggled.

"I understand your place here" Lexie explained "I know Dr. Shepherd is your best friend and you made him a promise but I just...I can't hide this anymore." Lexie trembled involuntarily.

Mark approached her, sliding his hands into her waist. That made her weak.

"OK. This isn't making things any easier" Lexie untangled from him.

Mark sighed. "I'm sorry for what happened at Joe's. I wanted to say something but I couldn't. This conversation, the one I'm gonna have with Derek...I could not just tell him there. Not under those circumstances. When I talk to him, it has to be in a quiet, private place. A table full of drunk people joking about my penis is not the place for that. This is important, you know?"

This time Lexie didn't fight back when Mark wrapped his arms around her waist. She hated the fact that Mark could make her forget about everything she was standing for by simply speaking. And what he had just said just made her all cold and soft inside.

"I'm sorry. I don't want to seem bossy or anything like that. I hope you don't see this as me giving you an ultimatum...it's just that it's making me sick and sick is not good. Medically speaking we have to do everything possible to keep our welfare, hm, _good._ Specially us since we are doctors, almost...we have to give the example" Lexie was rambling.

Mark was very amused by this and couldn't hide his smile.

"Lexie!? Lexie!? Lexie!?" Mark said several times during Lexie's speech trying to get her to stop talking.

"...what?" Lexie was dumbfounded.

"You are not making sense" he said. A happy smile in his face.

Mark moved his head closer to Lexie's making it impossible for either of them to think rationally. Their faces were mere inches away from one another when Mark rested their foreheads together. Their warm breaths hitting each other's mouths.

_Oh God. _The same exact thought was running through both minds.

Mark broke what little space was left between them and pressed their lips together. He was relieved when he learned Lexie let his tongue part her lips. They felt like they were in a slow-motion kiss as their tongues danced together in utter harmony.

Shivers ran through them as a whole: from the tip of their toes to the top of their heads. They felt thousands of ants rushing throughout their entire bodies.

Lexie moaned softly as they broke the kiss off. They were both desperately gasping for air.

When they finally stopped gasping, Mark resumed pressing their lips together. "You wanna go up?"

Lexie couldn't help but laugh through the kiss. "Why, Dr. Sloan, I don't think you should be doing _this._ Not after what happened just earlier."

"Don't tease me" Mark whispered into her ear.

"My shift starts at 8 am" Lexie said "I think I should go" But that was not what she _wanted._

Mark's response to that was to slid his tongue between Lexie's lips once more. She played with it for a while and, fighting against her feelings as hard as she could, she spoke again.

"Mark, I have to..."

"No, don't" Mark interrupted.

Lexie didn't want to spend the night at Mark's unless they were officially out. But the way he was kissing her and touching every possible inch of her body that gave her chills made her give in.

She didn't say anything. She just let Mark lead their way across the hall and into the elevator.

*

Lexie opened her eyes slowly. Her sight was a little blurry at first but eventually her eyes settled and to her surprise Mark was lying next to her. His eyes never leaving hers.

"Hi" Mark smiled.

"Hey" she answered after a brief pause.

"Are you OK?" he asked.

Lexie smiled to herself. "Definitely"

"Good" Mark said in an almost inauduble tone.

"What time is it?" Lexie wanted to know.

"A little passed 6" Mark said while checking his watch.

_Damn it. _

"I have to get ready to go" Lexie was bummed.

"You can wait a little. It's not that far" Mark pointed out.

"Don't _you _have to be in the hospital?" Lexie inquired.

"Well, I didn't _really_ take time off. But I didn't _NOT _take time off either. Not officially. I'm good. I'll show up later. There's something I have to do there." Marked reached for her hand.

Lexie trembled. "Is that so?"

"Yep." Mark wouldn't give her more information.

Lexie knew it was useless to ask so she just changed the subject.

"You've been awake all night?" she asked since the last thing she had seen before falling asleep was his eyes on hers and, ironically, that had been the first thing she spotted as well.

"No, not _all_ night" Mark replied.

Lexie smiled sincerily. They kept staring at each other for a while. Mark caressing Lexie's cheek with his thumb.

"You know" Mark broke the silence. "This is the first time I've been in bed with a woman and haven't even thought of sex."

Lexie raised her eyebrows.

"Not that you don't turn me on" Mark said urgently. "You _know_ you turn me on." he emphatized. "What I meant was...I didn't think about sex while I was lying with you" Mark said it almost to himself as if he were proud of what he had achieved.

"I know what you mean" Lexie felt true happiness. She already knew she cared for Mark but she had not realized how strong the feeling she experienced whenever she heard his voice, or was around him, or even thought about him was.

Mark glanced at his watch. "As much as I hate to say this, I think you should start getting ready. I don't want to get you fired." he completed.

Lexie rolled her eyes. "Shoot."

Mark laughed. "Well, you know where the bathroom is. If you need anything just let me know."

*

Mark lay down facing the ceiling when his cell phone went off. _Derek._ He read.

Mark hit the answering button and before he could say anything he heard Derek's voice.

"Mark, I've been calling you all night. Where the hell were you?" Derek said impatiently.

"I was...busy" Mark smiled to himself.

"Look, I'm just walking past your street now. Can I come up?"

"You...what?" Mark was taken aback.

"I need to talk to you and I won't take no for an answer."

Mark could still hear Lexie in the shower. He hesitaded. "Don't you have to work?"

"Not until 10" Derek said hoarsely.

Mark remained silent. "Dude, really...this isn't the best time."

"Mark!" Derek snapped. "I said I wouldn't take no as an answer. Avoiding me isn't going to take care of the matter..."

"Avoiding you?" Mark did not follow.

Derek didn't pay attention. "I'm coming up right now wheter you like it or not."

Before Mark could say anything Derek had already hung up. "Derek? DEREK?" Mark shouted.

Mark tossed the phone over the bed and looked at the bathroom door as he felt a rush of adrenaline run through his body.

_Shit. _

_Don't panic._

_You'll know what to do._

_*_


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey there guys! Thank you so much for your reviews. Sorry if I got cheesy at some point. I was trying my best not to do that.**

**This chapter is smaller cause it's sort of a transition. I was going to continue what matters in this one but I thought it would be better if I took a little longer to write focused_ just_ in what takes place next.**

**Please don't hate me. LOL.**

*****

Mark was freaking out, walking back and forth, when Lexie came out of the bathroom.

"Lexie!" he squeaked.

"What's the matter?" she asked noticing his expression of horror.

Before Mark could answer, they heard the doorbell ring.

Mark drained out of color.

"It's Derek" he mouthed to Lexie as he walked over to her. "Look, this is _NOT_ how I want him to find out about _this_. Please, just stay here and do not leave this room."

"But..." Lexie was appalled. "...my shift starts in 20 minutes" she stared at the clock.

"Lexie!" Mark panicked. "PLEASE"

He didn't wait for an answer. Derek was now furiously and continually pressing the doorbell.

Mark stumbled out of the room and closed the door.

"I'm coming" he shouted trying to get Derek to knock it off.

He finally opened the door to his apartment and Derek flew inside.

"Dude..." Mark tried to speak but was interrupted by and edgy Derek.

"What happened last night?"

"What?" Mark was bewildered.

"What was that in Joe's about?" Derek specified.

"You're asking _me_?" Mark frowned.

Lexie felt guilty for doing this but she stood really close to the door, trying to listen to the conversation.

"I'm sorry if I invaded your privacy" Derek continued. "And I'm sorry if I was arrogant. But seriously...Callie says you're acting like this because I made fun of your, hm, _lack_ of commitment. Since when did you start caring about that?"

Mark was astonished. _What the hell? _That was not the reason Derek had made him so pissed the prior night.

_Thank you Callie. Now how am I going to get out of this?_

"You're being paranoid, Derek." Mark said nervously. "There is no problem here" he said pointing at both of them.

"So why did you snap at Joe's and why did you avoid me until now?"

_OH. MY. GOD._

Lexie looked at the clock again. She had to be in the hospital in 10 minutes. She started becoming annoyed. The idea of going out through the window crossed her mind but that was not an option unless she wanted to die from the fall.

_Really brilliant, Lexie Grey._

"I...I told you I was busy last night" Mark stated.

"You know what Mark, whatever. If this is how it's going to be..." Derek started walking to what made Lexie _YES _inside.

"Man..." Mark said out of impulse but regreted it instantly.

"Damn it. Shut up Mark" Lexie said to herself.

Derek stopped walking to face Mark.

"Look..." Mark had no idea what to say. "...I think this was just a big misunderstanding. I'm not going to lie to you, I was a little pissed at Joe's last night but I was not avoiding you." That was what came out.

"What were you pissed about?" Derek asked.

"You were talking about my broken penis, Derek. You were almost singing about it."

Derek tried not to laugh at that remark.

Lexie was so impatient she wanted to scream. It was now 7:53 and there was no sign Derek would be leaving anytime soon.

*

_Seattle Grace Hospital_

"Where the hell is three?" Cristina snapped at the other interns.

They stared at each other.

"Huh?" Cristina growled.

"I don't know Dr. Yang" Graziella babbled. "Something must have happened."

"Yeah, right" Cristina didn't pay attention. "She better be here soon or else."

*

"Now I just need to know why you missed exactly..." Derek checked his cell phone. "...19 calls of mine."

Mark rolled his eyes.

"Don't give me that busy crap." Derek warned.

"I had company" Mark finally said.

"You...oh..._OH_" Derek finally seemed to fall into place.

"Yeah" Mark nodded.

"She's not here, is she?" Derek asked weirded out.

"What?" _OH HELL._

"Your _hm_ girl?"

"Ah, no, no...nope." Mark rambled.

"Well I'm glad we got this sorted out" Derek stated. "I have something big going on and I couldn't _not_ talk to you about it."

"Really?" Mark said sarcastically.

"Yeah" Derek smiled in excitement. "This might take a minute" he said making his way to the couch. Mark glanced at the watch. _8:07._

_Perfect._

_*_

_Seattle Grace Hospital_

"Call three now!" Cristina yelled at Graziella.

"Lexie isn't here yet?" Meredith asked.

"No! I swear...she's asking me to get kicked off the program"

"Well she did leave Joe's abruptly last night. Maybe something did happen."

"You're taking her side now?" Cristina jumped at Meredith.

"No, of course not!"

Cristina noticed Graziella staring at both of them.

"What are you waiting for? Make the freaking call!"

*

"You're proposing to Meredith?" Mark repeated.

Lexie pressed her ear against the door. Her eyes widened.

"Yeah, isn't it great?" Derek said in utter happiness.

"It's.."

Mark was interrupted by a distand and at first indistingable sound. As the sound grew louder they could clearly hear.

_If you, if you could return, don't let it burn, don't let it fade. I'm sure I'm not being rude, but it's just your attitude. It's tearing me apart, it's ruining everything._

Lexie gasped._ Godamn it! _Her cell phone was all the way accross the room.

"What's that?" Derek asked

"It's...it's..my cell phone" Mark faced the opposite direction.

_But I'm in so deep. You know I'm such a fool for you._

Deked stared at Mark.

"_That's _your ringtone?"

"Yep!" Mark was now facing nowhere. "Absolutelly."

Derek looked skeptical and tried real hard not to burst into laugh.

"Hm, aren't you going to pick it up?"

"I..." Mark started.

Lexie ran across the room and nervously picked her bag from the side table. When she finally found her phone buried way in there, she quickly refused the call.

"...well look at that. It stopped ringing" Mark tried to change the subject.

As Lexie walked back closer to the door, she was so disorientated that she bumped into the bed. She immediatelly turned into stone.

"What was that sound?" Derek was allarmed.

"What sound?" Mark panicked. "I didn't hear anything"

Derek got up and walked in the direction of Mark's room.

"What are you doing? Where are you going?" Mark yelled.

"Shh" Derek shushed him.

Lexie heard the whole comotion. _Holy Shit. _She had no time to think. _What do I do?_ She tried to run to hide behind the closet but it was too late.

Derek kicked the door open. He was holding an umbrella he had found beside the main entrance door.

Lexie stood like a child caught in act. Derek seemed to be only present in body for several minutes. Mark walked in right after him and was shocked.

"Lexie?" Derek finally gathered the words. "What are you doing here?"

Lexie wanted to look at Mark for help but also thought that would just make things worse. Instead she just stood still. Her brown eyes turning into rocks.

*

_Song lyrics: Linger by The Cranberries_


	5. Chapter 5

**I loved all your reviews guys! Thanks! I'm so happy you guys liked the chapter.**

**Sorry for leaving the last 2 chapters in cliffhangers. Hehehe :D**

**This chapter is a _little_ longer than the others. Hope you guys enjoy it!**

*****

"Lexie?" Derek repeated expecting an answer.

Lexie looked desperately at Mark who tried to signal for her from behind Derek but was soon forced to stop when his friend turned to him.

"Mark?" Derek's expression and voice were filled with doubt.

He stood between the couple in utter desbelief. He prayed that wasn't what he thought it was.

"Hm, Derek? Why don't we all just take a seat?" Mark stated.

_I knew it. _Derek looked at his friend disappointedly.

"I can't believe you did this.."

Lexie eyed Mark who seemed helpless.

"Wait a minute Derek, it's n..." Mark started.

"After I asked you specifically for this" Derek continued.

Lexie felt the urge to jump in. "Dr. Shep..."

"Little Grey, stay out of it" Mark said protectively.

That made Derek sick inside. _Little Grey._

"Damn it, Mark" Derek was pissed. "You really don't care about anyone else but yourself, do you?" he attacked.

That hit Mark like stabs all over his body. Surprisingly, Lexie felt pain as well while hearing Derek pronounce those words.

"Dr. Shepherd..." Lexie spoke with determination. "It's not Mark's fault..."

"Lexie!" Mark tried to stop her once again.

"Oh no, Mark. I'm gonna talk here" the fierce in her voice and body expression made Mark's insides fell funny.

Derek looked from one to the other.

"It was me" Lexie continued. "he told me about the promise he had made you and I pushed him anyway..."

"What?" Mark said appalled.

"...and the day after, when he said we had to stop because of his promise, his promise to his best friend, I said OK but I kept teasing and provoking" Lexie was shaking.

"What day after?" Derek didn't understand.

"Lexie stop!" Mark growled. "you did no such thing" he said with care.

"I..." Lexie protested.

"Don't" Mark cut in.

_What was going on? _Derek thought.

"Derek, listen..." Mark turned his attention to his friend. "I slipped, ok?" I broke our promise and slept with Lexie"

Derek shook his head.

"_But" _Mark said quickly when she saw Derek's expression. "You don't have to worry. I'm not messing around with her, OK?" Mark could have sworn he felt his cheeks blushing.

"You...?" Derek didn't know what to say.

"The only reason you wanted me to stay away from her was because you believed I was just going to use her. That's not what I'm doing." Mark explained.

Lexie felt a rush of warmth take over her. It felt so good to be talked about like that.

Derek lifted his left hand to cover his face. "Oh, no. Oh my GOD, no" he babbled.

Lexie and Mark exchanged glances not understanding his reaction.

"Lexie? Lexie!" the first was an interrogation and the last a realization. Derek captured their attention. "Mark" he looked at his friend. "it was Lexie all along last night when I was going over and over about Sadie, wasn't it?" Derek felt ashamed.

"Well, yes" Mark smiled to himself as he blinked at a happy Lexie.

"Oh dear God" Derek said "now everything is just crystal clear" he summarized.

_That's why Lexie left suddenly. Because I couldn't stop giving Sadie the credit for something that had actually happened with her. _Derek started thinking.

"Lexie!" Derek looked at his soon to be sister-in-law. "I'm so sorry" truth in his eyes.

"That's OK" Lexie said sweetly. "you couldn't have known."

"No but really, I feel like a jerk."

"Don't" Lexie said sincerely.

No wonder why Derek liked her so much.

_And Mark. _Derek got lost in his subconscious again. _He had been protective the night before about something. _And now Derek knew what that something was. Or rather _who_ it was. Derek was amazed.

"Dude..." he said turning to face Mark.

"You don't have to say anything." Mark jumped in.

"But I..." Derek stammered.

"Derek" Mark interrupted. "It's all right, man. Seriously."

Derek sighed relieved. The news had made him happy. He was glad his friend had finally been seeing someone on a regular basis subsequent Addison.

"Damn it" Lexie said suddenly remembering "I _have_ to get to the hospital."

Mark checked his watch. 8:26. "Darn. Wait, I'll take you. Grab your things."

Lexie walked passed Derek and was a little embarrassed as to how act with Mark. "All set." she said.

"Good. Derek, you coming?"

"Sure" Derek still felt a little out of it.

As the doors to the elevator closed, the trio remained silent. It was still awkward to all of them to be in the presence of the other two at the same time.

"Congratulations" Derek said not finding a better word to describe his feelings. "I'm really happy for you guys" he smiled.

"Thank you" Mark and Lexie smiled back.

Derek walked out of the elevator first and headed to where he had parked his car.

"See you guys later" he said.

Mark took Lexie's hand as he rushed to his car.

"C'mon. You are already late enough" he said quickly "why did your resident had to be Yang?"

Lexie just laughed as they jumped into the car.

*

"Three where the hell have you been? You want me to kick you off?" Cristina snapped at a gasping Lexie.

"I..." Lexie tried to fill her lungs with air after running like hell from the locker room where she had just changed into her scrubs.

"I had Dr. Grey on my services this morning" Mark interrupted.

"Yeah well, her shift started 40 minutes ago"

"Dr. Yang, your intern is here now. I wouldn't let her come before despite her trying to tell me her shift had already started."

Cristina just frowned. "Go to the clinic, three" she said without facing Lexie as she walked away.

"Thank you" Lexie mouthed smiling at Mark as he gently pushed her encouragingly.

*

"How much trouble did Yang give you?" Mark asked Lexie later thay day when they were both finally home.

"A lot" Lexie sighed. "I can't feel my feet."

Mark made the distance between them disappear and kissed her softly. He bent his knees moving his arms to the back of the legs and picked her up. He reconnected their lips and never stopped touching hers with his all the way up to bed.

Mark lay Lexie down and removed his shirt and pants. He buried Lexie between his body and the mattress. Lexie helped as he gently removed her clothes leaving her with her panties and bra on only.

Lexie's lips were parted as she accepted Mark's tongue into her mouth. Mark reached for her hands and intertwined their fingers together. He then held her arms up her head, never letting go off her hands. Felling Mark's bare chest against her breasts was driving Lexie to the edge.

Mark broke off their kiss and rested their foreheads together. Hey kept staring into each others eyes when Lexie opened her mouth.

"We're out" she smiled.

"We're out" he repeated and smiled back.

He closed his eyes as he continually kissed her neck, making her feel a cold rush down her spine.

Mark sat up and turned his back to her.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

He took her right foot and started massaging it. "There, does it hurt here?" Mark pressed his thumbs hardly against her sore feet.

"Yes, oh God, yes...right there" Lexie mumbled.

Lexie's feet twitched as he reached a specially sensitive place. Mark continued treating them until they were numb from his touch.

"Thank you" Lexie whispered as he covered her body with his again.

Mark removed Lexie's bra and tossed it aside. Now that both their chests were naked, collapsing against each other's, the feeling was so much better. Mark explored every inch of Lexie's skin with his hands and when he reached the proximity of her panties Lexie gasped.

"Mark, we shouldn't...I shouldn't." Lexie tried to get a sentence together.

"I'm not afraid of you, Lexie" he replied.

"But..."

"I know you won't hurt me" he assured her.

Mark pulled Lexie's panties down and she quicky kicked it away. He cupped her face and kissed every inch of it while Lexie gently pressed her knee against Mark's boxers. Mark was alive instantly. His underwear flew by the end of the bed and they quickly but gently became one.

Their bodies rocked in syntony as they felt each others hearts throbbing against their gasping chests. Their tongues met and battled along one another. Mark placed his hands around Lexie's waist and pulled her closer.

Lexie moaned softly as she felt she was getting closer and closer. She wrapped her legs around Mark and they both collapsed. Mark's body fell in top of Lexie's as their chests moved high up and down in complete balance. Lexie dug her fingers into Mark's hair and kissed the top of his head.

Mark buried his face in Lexie's shoulder. A short time after, he got off her and climbed his way up to her face. They both smiled at each other. Mark started continually pecking her which made Lexie giggle with pleasure.

*


	6. Chapter 6

**Thank you guys for all the review! You are all dolls :}**

**kira23kira: Thank you. And actually that's exactly where I took my title from. I love the song "Everything" and the line "how can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?" just reads Mark and Lexie to me!**

**Sorry I took so long for this update guys. I didn't want to stop at the point I had originally so I just waited to complete it.**

**What did you guys think of the episode? I like it despite the fact that we hardly had scenes. But what I really liked was the PP scene with Mark and Naomi. When he listed all those things about her and said he was afraid to hurt her. How cute was that?**

**Oh and Happy Valentine's Day BTW =)**

**This is the biggest chapter of all. Without any further delay…here it goes!**

* * *

They had been lying close together for almost thirty minutes when the silence was broken.

"You are not selfish" Lexie whispered.

"Hmm?" Mark began to open his eyes drowsily.

"Derek. He said you couldn't think about anyone but yourself." Lexie explained. "That's not true."

Mark was overwhelmed.

"I...I don't think he meant it" he said.

"No, I know. He didn't. But we always tend to give credit to what is said to us. No matter how mad the person who said it was. It's human nature. I just wanted to make sure you knew" Lexie rested her chin on his shoulder.

Lexie was right. Mark knew Derek was pissed when he had said that but he couldn't help but take a little offense by the statement.

"Thank you" Mark answered. "By the way...you didn't have to do that you know? Tell Derek you did all those things just to protect me"

"Who said I was protecting you?" Lexie smirked. "And I _did_ do those things. Besides, I couldn't let you ruin your friendship with him."

"But you didn't do all of it" Mark said "for instance...you didn't insist after I told you it could never happen again."

"I kind of did" Lexie had an innocent expression on her face.

"You tease" they both laughed.

Mark turned around so he could face Lexie. As he stared into her big glassy eyes he couldn't help but be amazed at how much that girl mesmerized him.

"What?" Lexie smiled.

"Nothing" Mark tried to change his expression.

"_Right_" Lexie raised her eyebrows.

"Really" Mark kissed her.

"Don't for one second think that _this _will make me forget" Lexie said through his lips.

Mark laughed. "Shh, turn around"

Lexie did as he said and Mark pulled her closer. He kept holding her as they rested in a shell-shaped manner. Lexie could feel Mark's warm respiration against her neck.

"Mmm" Lexie moaned.

Mark kissed the back of her ear and pressed her own hands against her stomach.

"Your feet better?" he asked.

"Yes" Lexie whispered now using them to massage his legs.

"Good"

Mark had been wanting to ask that question for a while now but never seemed to know how or when. He didn't know what had gotten into him. When he realized, the words had already come out of his mouth.

"So..." he paused "whatever happened to O'Malley?"

"What?" Lexie opened her eyes.

"You know... George O'Malley" he said slowly.

Lexie laughed "Yeah, I know but...what about him?"

"Well it's just that...not too long ago you were into him or are into him, I don't know. And I don't know if you ever told him or if something happened...I was just wondering" he rambled nervously.

Lexie thought she felt Mark's heartrace increase against her back.

"Well" she began "I adored him. I did everything and anything for him. I tried to make him see his potential when he was down for being the only intern to fail his exam. I studied with him, quized him, I decorated his locker..." she paused.

Mark felt jealous. If only he had someone to go against all odds like that for him.

"...I stole things from the hospital to put in our apartment. I even looked at Cristina's, Meredith's, Izzie's and Alex's files to make him feel good about the fact that he had more letter recomendations and that he was better but he just...he just didn't see me" Lexie said sadly.

Mark squeezed her hands "I'm sorry"

"Don't be" Lexie affirmed. "I know better now. One shouldn't have to go through all that just to get the other to merely know they exist, should they? You were right all along" she continued. "I was being pathetic."

"You weren't" Mark regretted what he had said.

"No, I was" Lexie was really OK by it.

"Lexie..." Mark tried to speak but was interrupted.

"I was idealizing things. I thought I liked him but now I'm not so sure that _that _is how you feel when you have feelings for someone."

Mark felt his heart stop beating. _Should he say something?_

"I didn't mean to upset you...sorry I asked" he said.

"On the contrary" Lexie said turning to face him. "Thank you for asking." She caressed her fingers through his hair and kissed his chin.

*

"Meredith?" Derek approached her. "I want to tell you something"

"Shall I sit?" she asked.

"I think that won't be necessary."

"OK" Meredith waited.

Derek was a little nervous. "Well, remember you told me about Mark calling Lexie _Little Grey_ and that I should ask him to stay away from her?

"Yes" Meredith said emphatically.

"Turns out they've been...hm...seeing each other."

"What?" Meredith was surprised. "Since when do you know about this?"

"Yesterday" Derek affirmed.

"And you're telling me now?" she snapped. "How did you find out? What did you see? And why are you telling me this like it's nothing?"

"Becase it _is_ nothing. And I didn't _see_ anything. They told me."

"I cannot believe this" Meredith stated.

"Wait, Mer, calm down" Derek interfered. "I've seen the way they act with each other. It's different. This is different."

"It's Mark Sloan, Derek! It can't ever be different"

"Would you please give him some freaking credit?" Derek was angry. "He's my best friend. He stood by my side and squeezed my arm when I thought I was losing _you._ So please, don't you dare judge him in front of me! I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt"

Derek turned his back on her and walked away.

*

"Grey, you're with O'Malley today." Bailey informed. "Yang is in a special case with Hunt."

_Great. _Mark didn't like the sound of that. He grabbed Lexie's arm before she could go anywhere and dragged her to a corner.

"What are you doing?" Lexie still hadn't gotten used to the idea they could actually touch in public.

"What do you think?" he kissed her.

Lexie's cheeks blushed as she spoke against his lips. "I feel like everyone is staring."

"There is no one here" Mark said "so that's not possible."

"I know" Lexie smiled "but I feel like it."

"Believe me" Mark cupped one side of her jaw. "we could go over there and have the entire hospital watching. You want that?" he kissed her again.

"Grey!" they heard Bailey's voice calling.

"Perfect" Mark growled.

Lexie laughed "maybe some other time" she blinked at him and they went their separate ways.

*

Lexie was reading charts when she heard someone entering the room.

"George? Good. So I guess we're together in this one." she ofered him the chart.

"I've read it already" George was edgy.

"OK" she said confusedly "so what do you want to take care of first? It's either taking blood samples or..."

"Are you really going to pretend nothing happened?"

"Excuse me?"

"You think you were magically covered by an invisibility cloak while you were making that show?"

Lexie raised her eyebrows.

"Mark Sloan, Lexie!" George nearly shouted.

"Hm, yes?" Lexie replied.

"I don't recognize you" George said with disgust.

"I'm not following, George" she said sincerely.

"It's Mark Sloan, Lexie" he repeated "what's more to say?"

"Are you insulting him?" Lexie tried to show a contolled voice.

"See?" George snapped "you're not you."

"I sincerely have no idea what you're talking about."

"I thought you were different from the others. Special. Guess I was wrong. You fell for Sloan's charms just like all the others. Another one to his list of many and counting"

"Shut up" Lexie said angrily. She felt her ears burn.

"It's the truth. I'm just trying to help. You think the biggest manwhore alive is going to change just because it's you?"

"George I swear..." Lexie was getting close to being hysterical.

"What happened to you're crazy about me?"

"What?"

"Graziella told me the other day you were in love with me. What happened to that?"

"You can't be serious" Lexie was taken aback.

"Why?" George asked.

"What happened, George? What happened? What happened was that I was a fool who did everything possible for you but you couldn't care less about me"

"That's not true"

"It is..it is. I was just your best friend and you just used me"

"I had no idea you cared for me that way or I would have..." George stopped.

Lexie felt strange inside "You would have what?"

But Lexie didn't hear what she was expecting to. Instead she felt her heart turn into stone when she heard Mark's voice.

"Grey? Are you done here? Bailey sent me on her behalf. She's busy at the clinic and asked me to tell you she wanted your help whenever you were done."

Lexie wanted to say something. She was sure Mark had witnessed what had just happened in that room and she was positive it didn't look good for someone who was listening from the outside. Specially Mark.

*

Lexie spent the rest of the day on the clinic but only her body was there. Her mind was far far away. She was impressed at what she had just heard George say. But what _really_ impressed her was how much more this other thing was bothering her. Mark. She needed to see him. She prayed he would stop by the clinic but he never did that. She worked and tried to focus as hard as she could but was relieved, nervous and glad when she could finally leave the hospital.

When she was rushing down the corridor she bumped into George.

"I guess we never finished that conversation" George pushed her to the locker room.

"There is nothing to finish" Lexie said impatiently as she stared at the watch.

"What's the hurry?" George ordered.

Lexie didn't answer.

"Look, like I was saying before...I had no idea you cared for me like that. If I had known I would have done something."

"Like what George? Something like telling me we're more than just roomates because we're best friends? Or maybe you would have stood me up the whole night when we learned you passed yout intern test."

"Lexie you're not being fair."

"No George, _you're_ not being fair. You have no right George, no right" Lexie was shaking.

George ignored "The thing I would have done was to tell you I felt the same way."

Lexie was surprised at how she reacted to that. She smiled to herself.

"You know what George? If I had listened to that weeks ago I would be thrilled. I would be larger than life. But now...it just...it does nothing to me."

George had no expression "This is about Sloan isn't it?"

"Could you please not go there? Leave him out of this."

"You're blinded Lexie. Sloan is not a good guy. I'm trying to warn you as a friend. But I guess you would rather learn it the hard way."

"George you have no right, OK? You keep saying you are talking as my friend? What friend? All this has ever been was an unilateral friendship. You liked me for the sake of making you feel better about yourself, for inflating your ego. So just don't go there. Don't you think you have the right to order me anything or tell me how to run my life." Lexie took a breath. "Good night" se walked away and slammed the door.

*

Lexie was almost giving up. She had been knocking and ringing Mark's door for a good couple of minutes and still hadn't gotten an answer. She stopped knocking to rest her arm when the door was finally opened.

She stood still at the doorstep and eyed Mark. He sighed.

Mark took a step aside to let her enter. He shut the door closed and turned to face her. The silence left them both uncomfortable.

"Mark..." Lexie started speaking. "You must have a lot going through your mind now but you've got it all messed up" she said nervously.

"What, exactly?" Mark asked.

"What did you hear when you went to tell me that Bailey needed me?"

"There was more to hear than what I heard?" Mark said surprisedly.

Lexie gasped inside "Mark..."

"What I _thought _happened was O'Malley telling you he would have acted differently if he knew how you felt about him and you being all shaken about it. But apparently you guys had a little chit chat before that."

"We did not. And I was not shaken about it"

"You seemed to me"

"I was curious, Mark. Curious"

"Whatever you say" Mark said coldly.

Lexie took a tiny step closer to him.

"Mark, please. I'm sorry. But you are completely distorting the facts here!"

"Lexie it's OK, you know? You were crazy about the guy and he suddenly goes all warm on you. I get it"

"Clearly you don't"

_Is this how you feel when you're hurt?_ Mark thought. He felt used by Lexie. All he could remember was Lexie pinning over George and all of a sudden she was at his doorstep. She stayed with him and their time had actually been nice. He really thought she cared for him because of the little things she had done. But George had gotten to her with what he had said. He was confused and he hated how much that affected him.

"Look Lexie, you don't owe me any explanations. It's not like you're my girlfriend or anything"

"You told Derek you were not using me"

"_I _wasn't" he snapped.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she said unsteadily.

"Nothing" Mark started walking away.

"No" Lexie reached him "Tell me"

"Nothing, it doesn't mean anything. Just like this." Lexie knew he was talking about them.

"Why are you behaving like this?" Lexie held her emotions inside.

"Like what?" Mark snapped.

"Listen to me...I'm trying to explain this to you"

"There is nothing to explain" Mark shouted angrily. He felt he couldn't handle it anymore.

"Would you hear me?" Lexie grabbed his shoulders but Mark shook her away. She continued speaking anyway "Didn't you listen to anything I said this morning? When I told you the way I felt about George was nothing compared to what a person experiences when they have real feelings for another? Who do you think I was talking about, Mark?" emotion was escaping her eyes. "You need me to draw?"

Mark felt his whole body shake. "Lexie, I..."

"Don't talk to me" she turned her back on him.

"Please, Lex. I..."

"You're a jerk" she said still not facing him.

"I know I am. I know that, Lex. I'm sorry" he approached her and stood in front of her. Lexie was facing the ground.

He slowly reached for her hand with the tip of his fingers and tried to proceed holding her.

"Don't" she tried to fight against his grip.

"It's OK, Lexie. It's OK. Forgive me." he reached for her shoulders now. The more Lexie fought back the more he tightened his grip.

Lexie felt more tears in the corner of her eyes. She stopped fighting and Mark wrapped his arms around her upper body. She had her hands resting behind his waist.

Lexie pulled away lightly so she could look into his eyes.

"I feel nothing for him, Mark. Not anymore, I promise"

Mark dried her tears with his thumb "Shh. I know Lex, I know. You don't have to explain anything."

He moved his hands to her temple. "Shh, I'm sorry, baby. I'm sorry."

She rested her head against his chest.

"Mark I, uh, I..."

"Me too, Lexie, me too"

*

* * *

**So guys, Monday my classes are back and I'm not sure I'll be able to update that frequently. But I promise I won't forget about this story. I'll keep updating. Even if I only do that on the weekends but I will not leave you guys behind.**

**Thank you so much for your support so far.**

**=)**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hi there guys! Yes I know. Shame on me. I'm so sorry for taking so long to update. It's all uni's fault.**

**Thank you so much for your comments and support. And I would just like to ask for your patience. I will _not _****forget about this story or you guys. I may not update that often but I already have an idea to where this is heading and I will write until I reach that point.**

**kira23kira:**** You are welcome and thank you once more. Your effort to write on a bumpy road. Aww, you're a doll. Thank you very much.**

**So let's go and update now...LOL. Hope you guys like it ;) Just a little reminder. This chap is the immediate continuation of where chap 6 ended so I transcriped a little part of 6 just to get in the spirit of the thing :D**

**Sorry once again.**

* * *

_"It's OK, Lexie. It's OK. Forgive me." he reached for her shoulders now. The more Lexie fought back the more he tightened his grip._

Lexie felt more tears in the corner of her eyes. She stopped fighting and Mark wrapped his arms around her upper body. She had her hands resting behind his waist.

Lexie pulled away lightly so she could look into his eyes.

"I feel nothing for him, Mark. Not anymore, I promise"

Mark dried her tears with his thumb "Shh. I know Lex, I know. You don't have to explain anything."

He moved his hands to her temple. "Shh, I'm sorry, baby. I'm sorry."

She rested her head against his chest.

"Mark I, uh, I..."

"Me too, Lexie, me too"

_*_

They felt their pulsation increase as they remained holding each other. They could clearly hear the audible breaths of the other. Lexie looked up at him. Both eyes hungry with desire. She got to the tip of her toes and their mouths crashed. They felt like they hadn't done that in a long time as they savoured each other minuciously. Mark lifted Lexie and carried her to the bedroom. When they got there they broke from each other's lips gasping desperately for air. That sound just made them want each other even more.

Mark sat at the couch that was placed in the corner of the room with Lexie on his lap. His head rested on the couch's back as Lexie kissed his neck. Mark's hand made its way up to the back of her head to lead her lips into his. Their tongues explored each other's mouths hungrily. When they broke apart Lexie pulled Mark's shirt up his head. The sight of his bare chest gave her chills. She ran her hands through his abs and up to his biceps. Mark removed her blouse and bra and kissed the skin between her breasts. Lexie's head went all the way back as that feeling consumed her. Mark wrapped his arms around her chest and so did she. They embraced each other against themselves and _damn_ did that feel good.

Lexie unbuttoned and unzipped Mark's jeans real slowly making him moan against her jaw. Once his pants were off Lexie rocked her body against his underwear. Despite all the fabric separating them they could both feel the desire in the other. Mark pulled her hair to the back of her ears and kissed every inch of her face. His hands moved down to her waist and he pulled her pants down. Their hearts were throbbing against their chests. Lexie pulled his boxers down and massaged him. Mark gasped. He was ready. He started pulling Lexie's panties down but stopped half way. He caressed her waist moving down slowly to her cheeks and pulled the underwear a little bit further but not completely. She could feel him against her.

"Please, don't torture me" she breathed.

"I'm not baby, just trying to give you a little pleasure"

"You don't have to try"

Lexie took over and removed her own underwear all the way down. She then arranged their bodies so Mark could fill her. They both held their breaths for a few seconds. She rocked her body against his and made him smile in amazement. Although he wasn't doing that if he had remained still he would continue feeling that mind-blowing pleasure. He kept his hands on her waist the whole time either pulling her closer to him or simply holding into her there.

"Am I...?" Lexie started asking. But Mark knew better.

"You bet you are"

Lexie smiled and pressed her lips against his. She began to move quicker. They both gasped as they broke their kiss but it wasn't only for the air their lungs needed. When he heard she moan his name and saw her head falling back that feeling took over him. It ran through his whole body making him tremble. He was unable to think for that part of time. Lexie followed immediatelly. Her body collapsed and fell onto Mark's. All her movements stopped as she rested her head in his left shoulder. He removed her hair from her face. They were both panting. Lexie had never experienced this before. She buried her fingers on Mark's back at what she was feeling. Mark moved slightly which caused her to plead.

"No, please don't move, not now" she held into them, her voice almost trailling off as she felt that incredible sensation rush across her body again and again and one other time.

*

It had become silent as they had nearly fallen asleep in that position. Mark had his arms involving Lexie as she rested against his neck. They both had their eyes shut. Lexie made the first movement by kissing his neck. Mark opened his eyes and breathed in. He slowly moved his hip back so he would get off her. He touched her temple and their eyes met. Their faces got closer together, eyes still opened, as Lexie gently trapped Mark's lower lip between her teeth. Mark then closed his mouth around hers and they tasted each other as if it was the first time ever they were doing that.

"Why, Dr. Grey" Mark suddenly spoke "you're gonna have to take over more frequently"

Lexie felt her cheeks getting warm and flushing.

"Really?" she didn't want to sound insecure but she couldn't help it. "I wasn't sure..." she confessed. "I mean honestly did you? You know..."

Mark smiled. "Little Grey, let's just say this is what I'm thinking after what just happened: we should fight more often"

"Bite your tongue" Lexie punched him kiddingly. Mark spoke as he saw the look in Lexie's face.

"Lexie..." he stared into her eyes. "It was incredible. The best we've ever had if that's even possible. For it to get any better, I mean. You are really something" he rubbed his nose into hers and kissed her upper lip. Lexie smiled against his mouth. "Now" he said slowly "it's your turn"

"What are you talking about?" she was confused.

"I mean it's your turn. Let's go and try to make you feel the things you just made me feel."

Lexie was astonished. "Believe me, I felt it. _A lot _to be honest" she smirked.

"Not like this you didn't" Mark got up from the couch holding Lexie all times and led them to the bed.

"I'm not sure if I'll be able to cooperate here" Lexie muffled a sound. Eyes shut.

"You won't have to"

Lexie grabbed his head and held it tight against her chest as he kissed her breasts.

She was tired and as far as she could tell she wouldn't be able to do anything but when Mark reached her lower stomach as he was going down her eyes opened.

"Mark?" she said low.

"Shh, go to rest baby. I've got it"

"Mark?" Lexie repeated with a little more attitude.

"Hmm?" he looked up at her.

"Come here" she requested.

He remained still with a somewhat confused expression. She gestured with both hands for him to move closer to her.

"Cover me with you" she said softly.

Mark half-smiled and did as she said. He arranged their bodies until they were both comforting each other and began by kissing her deeply and passionately.

*

When the sun hit her face Lexie tried turning to the other side to get rid of it but it was too late. Once she was aware it was really difficult to sleep again. She sighed and slowly opened her eyes to see Mark watching her.

She pulled the pillow to cover her face. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"Nothing" Mark laughed as he pulled the pillow away from her.

Lexie raised her right eyebrow. "Good morning" now she smiled.

"Hello, good morning" he whispered. "I was wondering if you wanted to take a shower"

Lexie now raised both eyebrows and laughed. "Only if you behave"

"What are you talking about?" Mark played. "I always behave"

"Right" Lexie said against Mark's arriving lips.

"I promise" he said kissing her jaw.

"Mmm" Lexie closed her eyes. "OK" she jumped out of bed.

Mark watched her as she walked to the bathroom. "You coming?" she asked stopping at the door.

Mark took a while to come back. "Yes" he said as he got up from bed himself.

*

"You smell so good" Mark said as he sniffled the back of Lexie's ear. "Mmm"

Lexie turned to face him. "You said you would behave" she pressed his earlobe between her fingers. "How can I go to work with you talking about my scent and you smelling like _this_ yourself?"

"At least we get to go together today" he said "what time do you get off?"

"Around 11pm. Don't forget Yang is my resident"

"Right" Mark rolled his eyes. "Well, I'll have a break from 9 to 10:30pm if I'm not mistaken. But I have a surgery at 1am so I'll have to start prepping everything 2 hours in advance. I'll try to get out to see you though"

"OK" Lexie sighed. "There's always lunch if you can't do that" she pointed out.

Mark hated to have only lunchtime to see Lexie. They didn't have time to do anything. They had to practically swallow their food and they hardly had the opportunity to just sit and talk. _That_ when their lunchtime was the same. They missed each other because of minutes quite oftenly.

"I know, I know. But it's better than nothing" Lexie completed.

"Yeah, that it is" Mark paused. "We should get going unless you want Yang to yell at you again and threat to kick you off the program." He touched her back leading her to the door.

*

_Seattle Grace Hospital _

"Hi there" Lexie said to Meredith as she ran into her.

"Lexie! Hello" Meredith replied.

"Everything OK?" Lexie asked noticing Mer's expression.

"Well hm, it's fine" Meredith babbled. "Actually...there is one thing erm, are you seeing Sloan?" she asked.

"Oh, Derek told you then" Lexie smiled.

"Why?" Meredith asked.

"Why what?" Lexie was confused.

"Why are you seeing Sloan?"

"What?" Lexie was surprised.

"I mean" Mer tried to explain herself "Do you want to?"

"Do I want to what?"

"To be seeing Sloan" Meredith emphasized.

Lexie raised her eyebrows "Of course I want to. Do you think I'd be doind this if I didn't?"

"No, Lexie, I didn't mean it like that" Meredith said urgently. "It's just that..just be careful"

"Why does everybody keep saying that?" Lexie was a bit annoyed.

"Someone else told you to be careful?"

"Yes" Lexie replied. Noticing Mer's question with her eyes she completed. "George"

"Oh" Meredith realized. "Well the simple fact that we know him for a longer period of time than you do. We_ know_ him, Lex. Doesn't it bother you? Or at least _get _to you?"

"What?" Lexie asked.

"The fact that two people who know Sloan better are asking you the same thing? Doesn't it kind of mean or say something?"

"No" Lexie said as if the answer was obvious.

"Lexie..."

"Look, please let's not continue this. And I have to disagree with you when you say I don't know him like you do cause, honestly, it's the other way around. _You_ don't know him like I do. You have no idea who the real Mark Sloan is. The way he acts around people is _nothing_ like the way he really is." Meredith could have sworn she saw Lexie's eyes glow. "You should give him the chance to truly _know _him. He will prove you wrong." she stopped.

Mer didn't know what to say and thanked God when Cristina came over.

"Three, Shepherd"

"Right away Dr. Yang"

Mer's eyes widened. "You're putting her on Derek's services?"

"So?" Cristina asked "And _I'm_ not doing anything. Shepherd just happens to be the neurosurgeon here and I wasn't going to assign her to the heart transplant I want in"

_Great_. Meredith thought. _That's all I needed. Now my boyfriend and my half-sister are going to talk about how perfect Mark Sloan is and are going to hate me even more for that._

*


	8. Chapter 8

**I'm back guys! Updating ****sooner now. I had to make it up for your guys for being such sweethearts.**

**Thanks for all the reviews and support! **

**Note: This chapter has some medical terms, I would like to apologize if I got anything wrong. I did the best I could with my research to write this one. Hope you guys like it.**

* * *

"Dr. Shepherd?" Lexie announced her presence.

"Lexie! Hi there." Derek replied. "We're working on a delicate case today. I've been told the patient shows hallucination and delirium from time to time" he explained. "Hopefully we'll be able to get answers from the CTs and won't have to open him up."

Lexie nodded.

"Here's his chart" Derek offered.

"Thank you, Dr. Shepherd" Lexie took it from his hands.

"You're welcome" he replied. "And you can call me Derek, you know. We _are_ kind of a big family right now"

Lexie was surprised "You think?"

"Well, Meredith is your sister and Mark is practically my brother…it's funny actually"

Lexie smiled. "Well, Mer's not very fond of that idea"

"She talked to you?" Derek asked.

"You could say that"

"I know her first reaction to it was not the best expected but we just have to give her a little time. It's something I always say to Mark, she spooks easily. I'm sure we'll get past this" Derek assured her.

Lexie smiled thankfully.

"So, I'll see you in a bit on CT3? You can go ahead and inform the procedures to the patient"

"Sure" Lexie started reading the chart as she walked to room 373.

"Mr. Carmichael?" The man lying in bed was around thirty, green eyes, blondish. He looked lost. "I'm Dr. Lexie Grey and I'll be assisting you today"

"Pamela?" the man shouted.

"No, Mr. Carmichael, I'm a doctor. You're in a hospital…" Lexie was interrupted by the screaming man again.

"Who?" he wandered.

"You're here because you are not in your normal behavior. Sometimes you start hallucinating so you probably have something neurological." Lexie read his file.

"Who are you?"

Lexie sighed. "I'm Dr. Lexie Grey. We're gonna have to take you to CT to see if we can find out what's wrong with you. If we can't do that I'm gonna have to ask for your permission to proceed with surgery and maybe then Dr. Shepherd, our neurosurgeon, will be able to tell you what you've got. Could you please sign this consent?"

Lexie put the chart on the man's lap and held the pen up to him. But there was something wrong about it. The man couldn't hold the pen, he tried to take it from Lexie's hand and did it with a lot of difficulty but when he touched the paper he couldn't move. He just remained pressing the pen's ink against the blank space.

Lexie looked at him. "OK, Mr. Carmichael, no problem. I'll just ask someone else. Do you remember how you got here? Were you brought here by a relative?"

The man's eyes turned all way over and he started not making sense. "Star, it was amazing, yes, yes. Unfortunate"

"Mr. Carmichael?"

And then he came back. "What? What's happening?"

Lexie saw Cristina passing by and called for her "Dr. Yang?"

"Not now, three. I have important things to do"

"But"

"No buts" Cristina looked at her. "And take that look off you face now"

"It's just a dream, it's just a bad dream" Lexie heard her patient's voice come from inside them room.

"Deal with it, Grey. Alone" Cristina turned her back and walked away.

Lexie went back in, hesitating. Ian Carmichael was now trying to roll off the bed but it was like some invisible thing was interrupting him. There was clearly something wrong with his motor function.

"Mr. Carmichael, you can't do that" Lexie rushed in his direction and stopped him.

"Where's Pamela?" the man asked desperately.

"Listen to me. You're in a hospital. There is something wrong with you but we're here to fix that. Just calm down. Dr. Shepherd will take care of you."

Olivia came in interrupting the tension "Dr. Grey, CT3 is ready" she informed.

"Thank you, Olivia" Lexie started pushing Ian's gurney.

"Where are you taking me?" the man screamed.

"Some place safe. Away from this room" that seemed to make the man calm down which made Lexie sigh in relief.

When she got to CT3 Derek was already there.

"Dr. Shepherd this is really weird. He shows hallucination but he also wasn't able to sign his name. Plus, he was trying to get off of bed but his movements wouldn't allow him to do so. And he keeps asking for this Pamela person"

Derek contemplated what she had just said "Huh. Well hopefully the CTs will show us something"

When he finally got the results, Derek spotted a slight bleed in Ian's parietal lobe.

"Well that explains the agraphia. But…why?" Derek thought out loud. "This doesn't make any sense" Derek raised his eyebrows.

"What's wrong?" Lexie asked.

"Well his symptoms are not making sense right? The damage to his parietal lobe explains his difficulty to write and the way he's acting without sense of direction. But the hallucinations? And the other lobes are intact, see?"

Derek showed her the CT.

"So, what does this mean?"

"I don't know. We'll have to get him to surgery now"

"Dr. Shepherd…well as you know he wasn't able to sign the consent"

"This is an urgent matter now. We cannot wait. I'll deal with it later. Now, go see if there's any OR available. If it's not a life or death case, tell them we're taking the room."

"OK" Lexie rushed outside.

_What's going on here?_ Derek started thinking about his options. _There's no damage to the brain area which could cause hallucination or delirium. What else could have caused that?_

As he continued pondering his options Derek suddenly had an idea.

_Oh My God_. He rushed out of the room and ran to the reception.

"Bob" he called for the receptionist. "Mr. Carmichael, thirties, blonde, arrived this morning"

"Yes, I recall Dr. Shepherd"

"How was he brought in?"

"A woman drove him in a personal car. She said he was acting out of character and that she was sure it was something neuro."

"And?"

"That's all the information I got. They took him inside immediately"

"This woman, she went inside with him?"

"I can't say for sure, Dr. Shepherd but I think so."

"Thank you, Bob." Derek ran to the elevator.

"Bailey" Derek called. "Were you here for the early arrivers this morning?"

"Yes" she replied.

"Ian Carmichael?"

Bailey nodded. "Yes, I remember him, sir"

"What was done about him?"

"I told them to send him to you"

"Didn't you run tests before?"

"Well, we thought it would be best to take care of him with you first. I mean, his issue was clearly neurological because of his behavior. And the woman who was with him said he had bum…"

"Clearly it was not"

"What?"

"There's an inconsistency" Derek was becoming edgy.

"I am not following, sir."

"Next time don't assume what his problem is and do first things _first_." Derek walked away while writing to Lexie.

_911. Exam room 7._

He then sent the same message to Olivia, asking her to bring the patient Ian Carmichael.

They both got there at the same time.

"Thank you, that's all Olivia" Derek said. "Lexie, I'm gonna need you to take a blood sample"

Lexie did as he said.

"Take it to the lab. Tell them it's urgent and top priority"

Lexie got the tube with the patient's blood and stopped at the door. "What's wrong, Dr. Shepherd?"

"I don't want to get ahead of myself but I think he's overdosed"

*

When Lexie got back from the lab she informed Derek. "They said 15 minutes tops"

Derek nodded.

"Overdose, Dr. Shepherd?"

Derek looked at her. "I started thinking what could have been the cause to his hallucinations and impaired motor function and this is what made more sense: an anesthetic."

Lexie's eyes widened. "But"

"I know, it's crazy. Don't even ask me how or why but it's the only thing that makes sense"

"What if that's the case? His file showed no recent doctor appointments."

"Exactly. I don't know what we're dealing with here"

"What are you suggesting?"

"I would rather wait for the results" Derek confessed.

"I understand"

"Did you manage to get the OR?" he asked.

"Yes, sir. OR2 will be available at 10:30"

Derek glanced at his watch 9:50. _Come on _he thought.

Lexie's pager went off. Derek nearly jumped. "They have it" she informed. "I'll be right back"

Lexie was really fast. When Derek realized she was already handing him the results paper. When he read it he was not surprised.

"His ketamine levels are high up. We have to wash his blood right now! I'll page Dr. Martin. See you in the OR in 20 minutes"

That was a lot to absorb. Lexie watched as Derek flew away from the room. _Damn it_. How did that day get to be so exhausting? And it had just started.

*

Lexie was running down the corridor when she bumped into Mark.

"Hey" he greeted.

"Oh, hi" she sighed.

"You seem tense" he approached her.

"It's just crazy today already. And the day barely began"

"Is there anything I can do?"

"Thank you but I have exactly 11 minutes to get to OR2 and scrub in"

"I didn't mean right now, I mean as a whole"

"Can I get back to you on that? I'm sure I can think of something later" she started walking away.

"So see you at lunch?" he asked.

"I hope" she replied.

"Nice" Mark said to himself.

Lexie stopped walking in the opposite direction and began to walk towards him. She kissed him on the lips quickly and resumed walking away.

"9 minutes"

Mark smiled as he watched her vanish behind the elevator doors.

*

Derek and Lexie were unscrubbing after a very tiring surgery.

"It's unbelievable" Derek commented. "His ketamine levels were three, _three _times what it should have been if he had taken general anesthesia. It's a miracle. Thank God Dr. Martin was able to get it all off in time"

"What do you think happened?" Lexie asked. "I mean, how did it get there in the first place?"

"That's another issue with which we can start worrying now since Mr. Carmichael is stable."

"You did a great job, Dr. Shepherd. Repairing his parietal lobe and all"

Derek smiled. "Just doing what I'm supposed to." He paused. "You should rest and have some lunch. He still has a couple of hours of post-op."

"Thank you. Page me if you need anything"

"Will do" he said as she left the room.

*

"There she is" Mark said as Lexie threw herself on the chair next to him in the cafeteria. "Wow" he said "what's the matter?"

"I'm just really tired" Lexie rested her head on the table.

"I can see that" Mark said placing his hand on her back. "Don't you need food?"

"Mmm" was all Lexie could say.

"Can you guys do that?" Callie said as she sat down.

"Do what?" Mark asked.

"Be affectionate in public"

"I'm just touching her back. And yes we can. Derek already knows."

"So does Meredith" Lexie said still with her head buried on the table.

"She does?" this time Mark asked.

"Yep"

Callie looked at Mark. "Yeah, she's a little tired"

Sadie was coming over.

"Will you please explain everything to her?" he then grabbed Lexie's arms and gently pulled her up. "Let's get you some food."

"Derek and Meredith know" Callie informed as Sadie sat down.

"Really?" she was surprised. "Didn't they snap?"

"I don't really know" Callie confessed. "They just said they knew"

Sadie smirked. "It's nice, isn't it?" That they can act natural and stop pretending? Makes them look healthier"

They both looked at Lexie at that moment. She seemed numb. Callie and Sadie then looked at each other and laughed. "You know what I mean" Sadie said.

*

"You should eat more" Mark advised Lexie.

"I'm good" she exhaled.

"Just a little more" Mark said kindly.

Lexie looked at him and rolled her eyes. "Fine" She ate what was left in her plate "Satisfied?"

"Oh, come on now, don't be like that"

"I'm sorry" she said sincerely. "My head is just full with this case"

"How much longer until your break is over?"

"About an hour"

"You want to get out of here?"

"Where to?"

"I know just the place. Come on, you could use some real rest"

Mark closed the door to his office and showed Lexie to the couch. Lexie laid down, comfortably resting her head on the furniture's arm.

"This couch is so big it looks like a bed" she commented.

Mark jumped over her and laid down himself. He glued their arms together and embraced her from behind. "Talk" he said.

"What about?"

"What's so stressing about this case?"

"It's kind of a long story"

"We have about an hour" he replied.

Lexie smiled. "For starters the patient was hallucinating. I was explaining him things but he wasn't able to care. I know it was not his fault but it was really stressful. I told him what we had to do and he asked about completely different things."

"I know how that is"

"So I tried to get help from Cristina but she told me to deal with it"

"Shocker" Mark played.

Lexie laughed. "Let me finish"

She explained the whole thing. How it didn't make sense Ian was hallucinating if the only problem was his parietal lobe and how it had turned out he had a ketamine overdose.

"Now he's in post-op and our next step is to figure out how that anesthetic got there"

"Wow" Mark commented. "But the guy is stable now?"

"Yeah, he's fine."

"Yes, that was a really hard-working _morning_. But you should be excited. Thankfully the guy turned out to be OK and you got to be a part of a case like this. I'm sure most of our _residents_ never had this chance"

"I know, I'm excited. Just really tired. I'm sure I won't stop talking about it once my state of exhaustion is over. Enjoy." She laughed.

"Yikes"

"Stop it" she slapped his hand.

Mark laughed "You should try to sleep a little. Your break will be over soon. Close your eyes"

"My eyes _are _closed"

"You know what I mean"

"Will I have to sleep alone?"

"Never"

"Don't you have to be heading back?"

"Not right now. That's the magic of being an attending. Unless there is an emergency or a booked surgery we only have to get back when we want. Not when others call for us"

"Show off"

"Sleep" Mark kissed the back of her ear and caressed her hands with his thumbs.

*

* * *

**I already have chapter 9 ready guys! It'll be up soon. Tomorrow the latest :}**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey there guys. I know I said this would be ****up by Tuesday but everyday I had something stopping me from updating. Since I had this case to work on, I waited a little to develop the thing. I didn't want to write something that didn't make sense. If there are any doctors or nurses out there and I wrote an absurd I'm sorry. I did my best in my research.**

**Thank you so much for all the reviews! I love them and they all just make me want to keep on going.**

**So finally…let's get to what really matters. And YAY. Thursday the torture is over :D**

* * *

Lexie woke up startled at the sound of her pager. She realized she was now alone as she sat up dizzily. There was a note resting on the table before her. She opened it and slowly read.

_Lex, _

_Something came up and I didn't want to wake you up. I still have that surgery at 1 so don't wait up. I hope everything goes well now with your guy. You know where the key is. See you later. _

_Mark_

She then turned her attention to her beeper. It was a message from Derek telling her to go to Mr. Carmichael's room. When she got there Derek was already waiting.

"Lexie, good" he greeted. "Mr. Carmichael is stable, looks like we managed to get it all off him in surgery. But we still have to wait a little more than 36 hours to be completely sure. Now all we can do is wait for him to be conscious again so we can see how his reactions are"

"What can we expect, Dr. Shepherd?"

They then heard a noise coming from the man in bed. He was moving.

"Pamela?"

Lexie eyed Derek. "Yeah, he kept calling for her before surgery"

Derek wondered. "Lexie, stay here. I'm going to go talk to some people, see if they can help"

Lexie nodded and walked closer to the bed.

"Mr. Carmichael?"

He looked at her with confused eyes. "What happened? What am I doing here? Is this the hospital where Pam works?"

"You just had surgery" Lexie explained. "There was a bleeding in your brain" she saw his expression of horror "but Dr. Shepherd already controlled that and your chances there will be no future damage are pretty high"

Derek was walking to the reception when Bob came to find him.

"Bob, great. I was just looking for you"

"Dr. Shepherd, the woman who brought that patient you were talking about earlier? She just came in"

"Great, that was exactly what I wanted to talk to you about. Where is she?"

"She went in over there" Bob pointed the direction.

"Can you describe her?"

"Hm, tall, brunette. She wore a blue shirt"

"Great, thanks Bob." Derek disappeared behind the wall.

His pager went off. _Dr. Shepherd, when you have the chance please come into Mr. Carmichael's room. Don't worry. It's nothing urgent._

When Derek got to Ian's room Lexie was standing by the door.

"Hey" Lexie said. "I thought this was interesting. He looks good, hasn't hallucinated and is slowly recovering his accurate movements. But I tried to get him to write and he still seems to have a little trouble doing that. That's because we still have that wait until his brain completely heals right?

Derek shook his head. "You know what this means, right?"

Lexie just looked at him.

"The hallucinating was completely caused by the ketamine. I was hoping it could be something else, like his brain bleed had spread from his parietal lobe but…"

"Dr. Shepherd, Mr. Carmichael said nothing had happened to him lately that could have caused him that head injury. I asked him if he had hit it or if something had fallen on top of him and he said no, nothing. He said he had actually spent the last 5 days in bed because he was feeling sick. And we can trust him on that since no memory area was affected."

"See if you can find out anything else. I'm gonna try to find the woman who brought him in"

"OK"

Derek was on the 4th floor when he spotted her. Brunette, tall, blue shirt.

"Miss?" he called.

The woman continued walking.

"Miss?" Derek rushed in front of her.

"Excuse me?" the woman sounded startled.

"Did you escort Ian Carmichael here earlier?"

"Oh my God, yes! Where is my husband? Is he OK?"

"OK. I'm gonna need you to calm down. There are some questions I need to ask"

"What happened to him?" she said nervously.

"Your husband is fine, Mrs. Carmichael. But I need your cooperation to find out what happened"

The woman seemed oblivious.

"What's your name?" Derek asked.

"Pamela"

"OK, Pamela. Tell me what happened"

"Everything was just fine this morning when Ian tripped in the rug and bumped his head on the coffee table"

Derek stared at her.

"I see…do you know which part of his head he hit?"

"Is that important?" the woman snapped.

"Pamela, I understand your concern now but yes, it's very important or I wouldn't be asking."

"I can't remember that now. The top of it, I guess."

"Was there anyone else in the house?"

"No, just us."

_How could she not remember which part of his head he hit if she was the one to bring him here?_

Derek raised his eyebrow. "You told me he tripped on the rug, right?"

"So?" the woman's voice was shaky.

"Well I just think it would be highly unlikely for him to bump the top of his head if that were the case. Probably the front, maybe the lateral"

"I told you. Everything was fuzzy and I didn't remember for sure"

Meanwhile Lexie stood next to Ian's bed and he started talking.

"Where's Pamela?" he asked. "Where's my wife?"

"Is she the one who brought you here?"

"I don't know who brought me here. I just remember being with Pam and then waking up here"

"Dr. Shepherd is looking for her. He'll come back with news if he finds anything out"

The man sighed.

"Why don't you tell me what happened? What do you remember before coming here?" Lexie said.

"Well, we were having problems. Pam and I. And one day I just came home and it was like it had all just been a nightmare. Pam was happy. She cooked me dinner that night. I remember thinking it was too good to be true. And I was right. The next morning I felt sick. I spent the next days in bed."

"Why didn't you go see a doctor?"

"I just figured it was the flu or something like that. But then I began feeling really weird. I was dizzy all the time and things didn't make sense. I also started having trouble moving. It was like I was someplace else but trapped in this body"

"What's the last thing you remember?"

"Pam brought me food. Next thing I know I'm waking up in a hospital bed"

"Hm, did you ask me if this was the hospital she worked at?"

"Yeah, were are we?"

"Seattle Grace Hospital"

"Oh, no. Pam works at Mercy West. She takes care of the machines. Engineer."

"I see" Lexie's mind was spinning.

"Did you have anything unusual to eat these days? _How did that ketamine get there?_

"No. Just my regular diet"

_What the hell was going on?_

*

"So he just bumped his head and started acting weird?"

"He was out for a while and then he just woke up hysterical. I didn't know what to do. But I was sure it was something with his head because of the bump"

"Where did you go after you dropped him here?"

"What?"

"I mean, you just left him here and disappeared. Didn't you want to stick around and see what was going to happen?"

"I had to work"

"I see…" He paused. "Well don't you wish to see your husband now?"

"I..I can't"

"Why?" Derek asked.

"I have to get back to work"

"Already?"

"I thought I would have time to see him but I couldn't find him when I got here and now you wouldn't stop talking to me so my time is up"

"You understand we're just trying to do what's best for your husband. Can't you be late for 10 minutes? He's been calling for you. I think it will be important for is recovery to see you"

"Is he going to remember anything?" she asked.

"His morning hasn't been affected" Derek assured.

"Isn't the top of your head the place responsible for your memory?" she was nervous.

"Actually there are several parts of the brain that are responsible for that but the top is definitely not one of them" Derek explained.

*

"Why does my head hurt so much?" Ian asked Lexie.

"You must have bumped it"

"I told you, I was in bed for almost a week. The only place I bumped my head was in my pillow"

"Maybe it happened when you were being brought here" Lexie started.

"But this hard?" he asked. "Enough to make me have to go through surgery?"

Lexie got a message at that moment. It was from Derek.

_Call security. 4__th __floor._

"Mr. Carmichael, I'll be right back. Don't worry, we'll figure out what happened to you"

*

"Pamela, what do you work with?"

"I'm the head engineer of Mercy West" she said proudly.

Derek was now pretty sure what was going on.

"Look, I would really love to chit chat but I really should get going"

"Ah, of course. Do come back later though. I'm sure it's going to mean a lot to Ian's getting _better_"

Pamela forced a smile.

"Yes, that's right. 4th floor. Dr. Shepherd." Lexie spoke quietly on the phone. "OK" she hung up.

Pamela started heading to he hospital's exit when she felt someone grab her hands from behind her.

"Mrs. Carmichael, we would like to ask you a few questions" the man in black said.

"What the hell is this?" she screamed.

Derek started talking. "For Ian's luck his memory was not affected and there was no such thing as tripping in the rug. There is no way one would injure the top of their head by tripping in a rug. And even if that had happened the damage wouldn't be this serious. He was hit in the head with strength by some object. And hospital engineer? Easy way to have access to ketamine, isn't it?

Pamela's eyes widened.

"Yeah, we found it in his blood. So what did you do? Overdosed him with ketamine and then hit him to make us believe it was a neurological problem he had? That it was that neuro problem that was causing his hallucinations and not the amount of anesthetic he had in his blood strain? Very clever"

"You don't understand" Pamela cried. "You don't know that man. How it is to live with him. He's a crazy control freak. He was ruining my life. I had to get rid of him and he wouldn't leave"

Derek ignored. "The only problem for you is that you didn't think. The parietal lobe, the top one, does not cause the same effects ketamine does."

"I thought I had overhead everything right from the doctors in Mercy West. I even double-checked"

"Well thankfully you didn't. It's a good thing engineers are not into Biology" Derek was furious. "Take her" he said to the security guy.

The officer dragged her brutally outside the hospital as she struggled against his grip.

*

Derek entered the room slowly. Ian was resting with his eyes closed.

"Dr. Shepherd" Lexie approached him "What happened?"

Derek gestured for them to go outside.

"It was her" he said. "Pamela, his wife" he said carefully.

Lexie covered her mouth with her hand.

"She drugged him with ketamine and hit him on the head to make it sound neurological. She must have hit him after the ketamine caused him to pass out. That's why he doesn't remember anything"

"Oh my" Lexie said in shock. "That was exactly what we were hoping was not the case"

"I know" Derek commented "now comes the hardest part" he said looking through the window.

Lexie sighed. They both entered the room as Ian was opening his eyes. He looked around and stopped his gaze at Lexie.

"Where is she? Where's my wife?" he cried.

Lexie looked at Derek. "Mr. Carmichael…" she started.

"Why won't you tell me?"

"I will" Lexie got closer to his bed. "But it's going to be difficult for you to hear this"

He trembled "Is she dead. Oh my God, is she dead?" he started shaking.

"No" Lexie held his arms. "Calm down. She's not dead"

"Then what is it?" tears went down his face.

"Listen to me. Your wife is the reason you're here right now" she hesitated. "We found ketamine, an anesthetic, in your blood and we believe she was the one who gave it to you"

"Lexie…" Derek interrupted.

"Just a minute" she replied.

"What?" Ian spoke "No, that's impossible"

"You said it yourself nothing different from the ordinary happened to you these days and after she cooked you that meal you got sick. Plus she would have access to the ketamine since he worked in a hospital"

"No, no, no. You're lying" he shouted. "Where is she?"

"Mr. Carmichael, your wife has been taken for questioning. However we are positive what Dr. Grey just said is what took place and for that she's going to jail"

"This isn't happening. No, no. Shut up liars." Ian cried.

Lexie looked sadly at Derek.

"I'm going to book a psych consult for him" he said so only Lexie could hear.

Lexie sat next to him and squeezed his hand.

"Mr. Carm…"

"Why?" he asked "why?"

"I can't answer that. I don't have that response." She said sympathetically. "I'm sorry"

Ian didn't say anything. He just turned his head to the other side and buried his face in the blankets.

"You did a good job today, Lexie" Derek said hours later. "Go home. He's going to spend the night in psych. Tomorrow is an all new day to deal with this."

"Did we get any feedback from the police?" she asked.

Derek's look was enough to make her understand. "They accounted for the missing ketamine in Mercy West"

Lexie exhaled.

"It will be OK now. He'll make it through it"

"Yeah" Lexie whispered. "Well. Good night then"

"Good night, Lexie"

*

Lexie got the key to Mark's place on his top drawer. She had paged him 15 minutes ago but hadn't gotten any answer. She looked at the watch. 11:13. _Must be prepping his patient for surgery._ She closed his office door behind her and walked herself out of the hospital.

When she opened the door to Mark's apartment she saw him standing right in front of her. She kicked the door closed and threw her arms around him.

"You're here" she sighed.

"I take it things didn't get any better with your patient" he spoke softly.

"You have no idea" she whispered.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Later"

Mark caressed her back.

"I'm so glad you're here" she said. "I thought I would come here to an empty place and fall asleep without you. What happened to your surgery?"

"I didn't have any" he said.

"Oh, they cancelled?"

"No. I had no surgery booked today to begin with"

"What?" she looked up at him.

"I already knew this morning I would get off by lunchtime"

"You lied to me?"

"No, I didn't lie to you. I just gave you false information"

"Oh, that makes it so much better" she scoffed.

"I wanted to surprise you. See? How good was it to come home and find me here?"

"Not that much"

"You just said you were happy I was here"

"Well I lied too"

Mark laughed. "Come on now. I have something for you"

"Really?"

"Really"

"What is it?"

"I'm not telling you"

"Oh, come on. Please tell me"

"You're gonna have to open it" Mark started untangling from her arms. "Can you stand?"

"Mmm" she remained still. He walked over to the table beside the couch, opened the bottom drawer and took out a small purple package.

"Here" he gave it to her.

Lexie sat down and carefully tore the wrap open. She then held a little silver metal in her hands.

"It's a key" she acknowledged.

"It's not _a_ key, it's _the_ key" he sat beside her.

"_The_ key?"

"It's the key to this place" Mark said.

"Oh" Lexie was surprised. "Mark, I…"

"You don't have to move in here if you don't want to" Mark jumped in nervously. "I'm just trying to say here that you have that option, you know…to come here if you don't have anywhere else to do. Whenever you want"

"But I'm already coming here all the time" she said.

"Indeed. But I meant _officially_"

Lexie smiled. "Thank you" she kissed his cheek.

Mark smiled "So how tired are you? Would you like to go to sleep? Have you eaten?"

"No I haven't. And I think I would rather take a bath before"

"OK" he nodded. "Go ahead. I'll make you something"

Lexie stared at him "You will _make_ me something?"

"What?" Mark asked. "Are you doubting my capacity?"

Lexie laughed. "Of course not. I just didn't take you as the cooking type."

"Oh, I have cooked. I've fried eggs and sausages" he said proudly.

"Well, if you fry me and egg we won't be having a very pleasant night"

"Why?"

"Because I'm allergic. Oh and please nothing with apples. I hate apples."

"You never told me that"

"I'm telling you now"

There was a slight silence between them.

"OK" Mark spoke "so you get yourself to the bathroom, I'm going to the kitchen"

"Mark you don't have to go through all that trouble. We could just order"

"It's no trouble. You'll see. Relax. When you come back you will feel sorry for doubting my culinary skills"

"Looking forward to" she said kiddingly.

When she was finally feeling relaxed, Lexie got off the hot tub and got dressed. A dark red nightdress.

"Wow" was Mark's reaction when he saw her come in.

She blushed a little. "So Mr. Chef, what do we have here?" she asked.

"We have pizza and soda or juice if you prefer"

"Wow that's quite something you've got there" she mocked "how did you do the pizza?"

"I got it off its box and put it in the oven"

"You should open a restaurant" Lexie laughed. It was amazing how Mark could make her feel lighter.

She took a slice and bit it. "Yum. See what I'm saying? What were you thinking when you went for plastics?"

"It wasn't an easy choice" she scoffed. "Come on, let's move to the living room"

They placed the food at the table and sat in the couch.

"Feeling less tired?" Mark asked.

"The bath helped but it will all hit back shortly"

Mark pulled her to rest her head on his shoulder.

"You can talk about it if you want"

"It was horrible, Mark. It was his wife. She drugged him with ketamine and hit him on the head to make it look like he had some neurological problem"

Mark listened without knowing what to say.

"It was so sad when he asked for her. I hate to give that kind of news to the patients."

Mark rubbed his hands through her arms. "Wow. This is really just…I haven't seen anything like it"

"We still have to deal with it tomorrow. He's gonna spend the night on psych"

"I'm sorry, Lex"

"I just don't understand you know? He was her husband for God's sake"

"Yeah, people can be pretty horrible" Mark was getting to an unwanted subject.

"I just hope everything is OK tomorrow. That there is no relapse."

"Me too, me too"

Lexie changed her position so she could look at him. "Thank you"

"For what?"

"For listening"

Mark smiled. "Not a problem"

Lexie smiled back and rested her head on his shoulder.

"I have a present for you" Mark said after a quick moment of silence.

"Another one?"

"What do you mean another one?"

"The key!?" she said.

"Oh. That was not a present. It was just…_something._" Mark reached for his pocket and handed a match box sized package to Lexie. "Here"

"Mark you shouldn't have."

He waved his hand "Open it"

It was a locket with a Japanese symbol pendant.

"Mark it's beautiful." She said with glow in her eyes. "What does it mean?"

"What does what mean?"

"This Japanese symbol"

"I don't know. I just thought it was pretty"

"Oh" she looked at him. "Well I love it" she smiled. "Thank you"

"You're welcome" he said kindly. "Here" he took the chain from her hands. "Turn around"

As Lexie turned her back on him he gently moved her hair to the side and put the locket around her neck. Lexie took the pendant in her hands and looked at it unable to hide her smile.

"I didn't get you anything" she said turning around.

"Sure you did" he looked into her eyes while trapping her hand between his.

Lexie cradled Mark's face with her free hand. "Close your eyes"

Mark did as she said. His heart began throbbing against his chest as he felt Lexie getting closer. He then felt the warmth of her lips embrace his. He grabbed the back of her head and responded enthusiastically. Mark felt Lexie's heart beating on his chest and she felt his. That was something that felt amazingly good for both of them. They broke apart and looked into each other's eyes.

"You should get some sleep"

"Are you saying I look tired?"

"No but you've had a really long day"

"Are _you_ going to sleep?"

"I'm not tired" he replied. "I'll take you to bed when I go" Mark gently led her head to his lap and started running his fingers through her hair.

*


	10. Chapter 10

**Hello everyone! I think the last time I updated this was 2 weeks ago *hides* I don't know what's wrong with me. I already have all the ideas in mind, I think I just take too long to type LOL. I spent about 3 hours tryping this one but I was doing other things as well. Chap 11 is almost done and I'm going to try to be quicker with it. And I just had another idea to a fic, but I'm going to keep that one to later or else I won't be able to finish either.**

**Well. I guess that's about it. Here it goes...A special thanks to all my Little Big Lovers at FF.**

**Thank you for the reviews! **

* * *

When Derek got home Meredith was already waiting for him.

"Hey" she said unsurely.

"Hi"

"You look tired"

"Yeah, today's case wasn't easy"

"Look Derek, about..."

"It's OK" he said.

"What's OK?"

"I don't want to fight. You're entitled to your opinion"

Meredith still wasn't fond of the idea of her sister with the legend Mark Sloan but she wanted to make things right with Derek.

"I'm gonna give it a chance...for you"

"Thank you" he smiled.

Meredith nodded. "OK then"

Derek hugged her and kissed the top of her head.

*

The other day was gray and rainy. Lexie and Derek were on the psych floor to check on Ian. The psychiatrist said he was doing better and that he was no longer fighting against what had happened to him. That he was accepting it.

"I should have figured it out" he said to Lexie. "I was naive to believe everything was OK between us that day when I came home. Just like that. Out of the blue"

"I'm sorry" Lexie said. "Is there anyone else I can call?"

The man seemed to think of something that made him hurt "No...there's no one"

Lexie felt sad for him as she recalled how it was like to feel that way. Like you had no one.

"Well it's been 24 hours and you seem pretty strong. You'll be able to go home later today if you continue like this"

He smiled. "Thanks"

Lexie smiled back. "Someone will be here to take you back to your room. I have to take rounds but if you need anything you can ask someone to call for me, OK?"

"OK" he nodded.

"I'll come back to your room to see you later anyways"

*

"Dr. Yang, is there anything I can do for you?" Lexie asked.

Owen was just crossing the hall before them then. "No, that's OK. Take a break, three" she said without looking at Lexie.

Lexie quickly checked on Mr. Carmichael and seeing he was doing fine and asleep she made her way to the locker room.

Sadie was there sitting against the wall reading some charts.

"Oh, sorry" Lexie said. "I can leave if you need some privacy"

"Nah, I'm almost done here" Sadie looked up from the files. "What's up?"

"Nothing. My yesterday patient is asleep and Dr. Yang didn't give me any other assignment"

"Lucky you. Here I am again trying to figure out what's this written here on Karev's charts. Seriously is this a _u _or a _v_?"

"I think it's a _v_" Lexie laughed.

Sadie shook her head and made a brief note beside the word.

"Sadie?" Lexie started. "I wanted to, you know, thank you for covering for us and being discreet before Meredith and Derek found out"

"It was nothing" Sadie said sincerely.

Lexie smiled. "Well, anyways"

Sadie waited a little to start talking "Um, Lexie?" she began. "Has Sloan ever mentioned anything about Callie? If she's ever said anything to him?"

"Well...Callie is Mark's best friend so yes...but what do you mean by _saying anything to him?_" Lexie needed to be sure.

"I don't know...did she ever talk about her relationships?"

Lexie tried to hide her smile. "As far as I'm concerned Dr. Torres isn't seeing anyone at this moment..."

"That's not what I asked" Sadie said defensively.

"...and she's brought your name up several times"

Sadie was still. "What?"

"Why don't you talk to her?"

"This doesn't mean anything. The fact that she brought my name up. She could have mentioned I was the crazy intern who let you take out my appendix" she babbled.

"There's only one way to find out" Lexie pointed out.

"Could you talk to Sloan?" she asked. "I need to be sure. I don't want to make a fool out of myself. Please, please?"

"I could" Lexie assured. "But I can't promise he'll talk to her. I promise to try my best though"

"Thank you. Thank you so much"

Lexie nodded. "So, you want some help there?" she gestured to the charts as she sat beside Sadie.

*

"Mark, finally" Callie said as he entered his office.

"What are you doing here?"

"I've been trying to reach you since yesterday"

"What's wrong?"

"You've got to help me. Yesterday when Sadie and I were left alone in the table...something really weird happened. I don't know, the way she kept looking at me was just so...I'm afraid it's all just in my head"

"Why don't you just talk to her?"

"Are you crazy? I can't take anymore humiliation"

"What do you want me to do?"

"Well...there's an option" Callie looked at him with puppy eyes.

"No...I'm not going to try to seduce her to see if it works"

"That's not what I said"

"What do you have in mind then?"

"Well...you could talk to Lexie" Callie began.

Mark opened his mouth but Callie interrupted before he could say anything.

"Please, Mark. Please, please, please. They are together most of the time because of the internship and they live in the same house"

Mark tried not to laugh at that last part since it was hardly true by now.

"OK...I'll talk to Lexie" he said.

"But Mark!" Callie said. "Oh...You will?" she realized his response had been positive. "Thank you so much" she hugged him. "I don't know what I would do without you"

"Yeah, well I hope that's sincere and you're not just saying that because I'm doing you a favor"

"Of course not" Callie sounded appalled.

Her pager went off making her walk to the door.

"Oh by the way...if you back off I'm going to kill you"

Mark laughed as she closed the door.

*  
"Excuse me. Are you Dr. Shepherd?" a woman carrying a blonde sixish girl asked.

"Yes Ma'am" he answered. "How can I help you?"

"It's my brother...Ian Carmichael. I got a call from the police..."

"Oh!" Derek was surprised. "Yes...he's here..."

"Could you please explain to me what happened? The person who called home was so vague"

"Well...your brother's wife...she..."

"I know. That part I know" she said hurtfully.

Derek was glad she didn't make him end that sentence.

"His surgery was a success. We removed all the drug from his blood and contained the hemorrhage in his brain. He's been stable ever since. If he continues like this he'll be able to go home by 11. We would prefer if he left in the morning but I understand if you want to take him sooner"

"Can I see him?"

"Sure" Derek said. "I'll show you to the room"

Derek paged Lexie to come over Ian's room. She got there very quickly.

"Lexie this is Ian's sister" Derek told her. "Dr. Grey assisted through all procedures. She was of great help in this case"

"Thank you" the woman shook Lexie's hand.

"Could you please take her for a few minutes? I wanted to talk to him first"

"Sure" Lexie said.

"Honey it's going to be OK. The nice doctor here is going to take care of you. I'll be back real soon so you can come inside as well, OK?"

"OK" the little girl looked at Lexie as she held her hand up to her and took it.

"I'm going in with her" Derek told Lexie.

"OK"

Lexie led the little girl to the waiting room and sat down beside her.

"Are you hungry?" she asked.

The little girl shook her head.

"Do you want to watch cartoons?"

She shook her head again.

"Your mommy will be out in a few minutes"

"She's not my mommy" the little girl said. "She's my auntie"

"Oh" Lexie said. _Damn it. Keep your thoughts to yourself, Lexie._

*

"Ian?" the woman asked as she entered the room.

He was a little groggy. When he saw her clearly, he couldn't believe his eyes. "What-what are you doing here?"

"It's me baby brother...I've heard what happened. It's OK, I'm here" she approached the bed and kissed his forehead.

"I thought, I thought"

"Shh. Forget about that. Forget everything"

Derek discreetly left the room.

"You're going to be fine. The Dr. said you could be out by 11 today if everything went OK"

"I have no one to go home to...I have nothing"

"It's best going home to no one than to someone who wants to kill you"

"Kath, you don't know..."

"I do know Ian. I know perfectly well. But let's not get to that subject. The important thing is you survived and she's going to pay for her actions"

Ian sighed.

"Come on. Where's that energy you used to have when we were little?"

"I don't have anything to spend my energy with"

"What about..."

"No. That's not a possibility"

"But..."

"No, Kath. Just don't"

"But Ian...you're just going to do nothing?"

"She's better _off_" he said sorrowly.

"Excuse me" she left the room and came back with the child shortly.

"Daddy?"

"Amy?" Ian was shocked. "Is that really you? What are you doing here baby girl?" he looked at his sister. "I thought you were at Portland with your granny"

"Auntie Katie came to pick me up"

Ian sat down and pushed the little girl to his arms.

"It's all taken care of" his sister said. "She belongs to you now. You have full custody"

"But...how? This quick?"

"It wasn't really hard after what happened you know? They weren't going to let her stay with _her_ mother." she approached her brother and talked so only he could hear. "They were planning on hurting you if not killing you and taking her. What was she doing there anyway?"

"She said it would be best if she spent time away from us since we were fighting all the time. And we were planning on moving there so she sent Amy first so she could get adjusted"

"You now see there wasn't going to be any moving in right?"

"Am I going home with you Daddy?"

He couldn't resist his little girl's voice. "Yeah, baby. We're going home"

*

Later that day Lexie was talking to Derek.

"I'm so happy he turned out not to be alone"

"Yes, I'm glad too" Derek said.

"Can you believe his wife took his little girl from him?"

"I just don't understand why he let her. And why he was standing up for her earlier after all that's happened."

"Yeah. The heart has reasons that reason cannot know"

*

"A smile" Mark said as Lexie entered his office. "All this for seeing me?"

"Well, that too" she said.

"What's up girl?"

"He has a daughter, Mark. He's not going to be alone anymore"

Mark kept looking at her. A smile started to form.

"What?" Lexie asked.

"You. You have an amazing heart, you know that? How you worry about people just because they are _people_"

Lexie flushed a little. "I'm just glad he has something to look forward to now"

"That's amazing, Lex. That's indeed really great news. I'm glad today was a better day for both of you"

"Any secret non-existing surgeries today?"

"No. Not today"

"Do you want to do something later?"

"Like what?"

"I don't know. Since it's Friday I was just wondering if you wanted to do anything other than staying in the apartment"

"Fine by me"

"It's not raining anymore so maybe we could take a walk"

"It looks like it's going to rain again soon"

"Well if it does we'll just go somewhere else"

"Sounds good"

"OK"

"What time do you get off?"

"Eleven. That's when Mr. Carmichael is going to go home"

"You want to go to the apartment first to change or you want to go directly from here?"

"If we go to the apartment we won't leave"

"True but if we don't go we'll have to come back here later to get the car"

"Huh?"

"Didn't you want to walk?"

"I do"

"Hm, let's see. I get out at eight today. I could leave the car home and take a cab and wait for you here and then we could walk"

"It's a plan"

Lexie walked over to the window to look out throught it. Mark walked from behind her and stood by her side.

"What are you looking at?"

"Nothing. Just the sky. It's beautiful isn't it?"

"When it's not cloudy like this"

"I like it cloudy"

"Will you like it if it's cloudy tonight?"

"No. I like a starry sky at night"

Mark's pager went off.

"Damn it. It's 911. Well I'll see you later then?"

"Absolutely"

Mark kissed Lexie quickly on the lips before leaving.

*  
It was 9:30 when Mark paged Lexie.

_I'm at the hospital waiting for you. Page me if you don't find me when you get off._

The next hour and a half passed by slowly when Lexie and Derek were finally able to send Ian home.

"Thank you so much" his sister had shaken both their hands.

"You don't have to thank us"

Ian came to them carrying Amy in his arms. He put her on the floor as Derek began explaining.

"You've made the 36 hours. Movements are fine, you're able to write, no hallucinating. The odds something will happen at this point are practicaly non existent but you never know. Please let us know if you start feeling anything"

"Will do. Thank you" he said looking at Derek. He then turned his gaze to Lexie. "And you...I'm just out of words"

Lexie smiled. "It was my pleasure"

"If you don't mind my saying...I don't know if I would have made it if it weren't for you. Thanks for all the support"

Lexie shook his hand.

"Come on baby girl" The three started walking the opposite direction. Amy suddenly let go of her father's grasp and ran in the direction they had just been.

She flung her arms around Derek's legs. He bent down to tap her on the back. She then moved to Lexie and the same thing happened only this time Lexie ducked so she could look the little girl in the eyes.

"Thank you" Amy said to both of them before she started walking back to where her father and aunt were. Derek and Lexie stared at each other in utter amazement.

*

Lexie had changed into her regular clothes and decided to look for Mark before paging him. She had been to four on call rooms when she opened the door to the fifth and found him lying in bed with his back turned to her. She closed the door silently and walked over him.

Mark started coming back to the real world when he felt her warm lips against his ear.

"I hope I'm not disturbing you"

"Not at all" Mark turned to lay on his back and pulled her closer kissing her lower lip. "I was just resting my eyes"

"Are you ready to go?"

"Yes. Let's go"

Before getting up he locked their lips together one more time and savoured her mouth with his tongue. They walked out of the hospital hand-in-hand to a semi-starry semi-cloudy sky.

"So I guess the sky is just how you want it to be today. Half and half"

"I guess" she looked up smiling.

"So where do you want to go first?"

"We could walk by the river"

"Let's do it"

The night lights were hitting them as they slowly toured through Seattle's streets. They kept walking by the river just enjoying each other's company. The night was pleasant, quiet and the weather was cool. Lexie looked up for a while and wandered.

"I've never been to the Space Needle, have you?"

"Nope, never. I think it's kind of an odd place"

"Aw, what? I think it's fascinating"

"Spinning while you're eating and looking at passing bats while you do it?"

"How about looking at the amazing black, cloudless sky?"

"This is Seattle. That sky is never cloudless"

"Argh, it's useless discussing with you"

Mark looked up at the Needle and smiled to himself.

"We've walked a lot without even noticing" he pointed out. "Aren't your feet hurting?"

"Not really. Not yet"

Mark started walking south.

"You want to go back already?" Lexie protested.

"I'm not going back I'm just walking in this direction. Come on" Mark wrapped his left arm around her waist.

They reached a green, deserted and lit square. The wind was blowing cold.

Lexie examined the floor and pulled Mark by the hand. "Let's lie down"

"Go ahead...you lie down. I'll stay here on this bench"

"Oh come on Mark. What's wrong with the grass?"

"Nothing's wrong. I just...the bench his more comfortable."

"Like hell it is"

"I'm serious Lex. I'm fine here"

"What's the fun in me being in the grass and you in the bench?"

"You could come to the bench"

"I want to stay here"

"Well..."

"Oh, shut up"

Mark laughed. "_Little Grey_"

"I hate you"

"You do not"

"Yeah, you tell yourself that"

Lexie looked up. She had an annoyed expression on her face. Mark rolled his eyes.

"Oh God, the things you make me do" he got up from the bench and laid down beside her.

"Thank you" she couldn't cotain her smile.

"Mmm" he said.

"Why so grumpy, Grumpy?"

"Very funny"

They rested their heads together as they observed the remaining stars in the sky. Lexie reached for Mark's hand and started playing with it. Mark wouldn't admit that not in a million years but Lexie had been right. He was really enjoying that moment.

"Lex...the sky is closing"

"Just a little more"

"The sky is gonna fall"

"Wait..."

When she said that there was a lightning followed by a thunder that made the ground shake. They jumped to their feet and started walking as the rain poured down.

"What are you doing?" Mark asked as Lexie ran below a tree.

"Looking for shelter"

"Do you want to get yourself killed? A lightning might strike" he pulled her out of there.

"Wow, I had totally forgotten about that"

The rain fell heavier and heavier and the sky became bright white every once in a while. They were both already soaking.

"Oh I wish we had a car now. I'm sorry I insisted on walking tonight"

"Little Grey, you apologize too much. It's not your fault"

They walked quickly trying to get away from the pouring water.

"We need to get somewhere safe. Not an open area like this"

"The bench now does sound promising"

"But this rain ain't stopping anytime soon. We should..."

"We're already soaked anyways. Just for a while"

Mark shrugged and pulled Lexie with him as he sat on the bench. The water was dripping from their hairs. Lexie rested her head on Mark's arm for a while. Another lightning cut the sky followed by a thunder that made leaves leave the trees.

"Are we _that_ far from the apartment?"

"Yes" Mark replied. "If only a cab would appear. I left my phone home"

"Yeah, I don't have nothing on me either"

There was a brief silence before Lexie lifted her face to look at Mark. Her heart raced immediately.

"You look awfully sexy with water falling all over you"

"Ditto"

She untangled from his grasp so she could move and kiss him. The water ran to the corner of their mouths as their tongues slowly circuled each other's. They tasted the rain as well as they did each other while the smell of wet grass was sensed by them. The kiss was broken so that they could breathe while staring at each other. Their lips met again another several times before Mark unwillingly spoke.

"Lex, we should start walking if we want to get home alive. The weather is just getting worse. We're gonna wind up catching pneumonia"

"OK" she said through his lips.

Mark took off his jacket and put it on Lexie's back.

"Thank God" he said as he spotted a cab driving by and called for it. "We have to warm up when we get home. Seriously, we're looking like two sinks of running water"

"Yeah, we do need to warm up when we get home" Lexie whispered, a knowing look on her face.

"Why, Lexie Grey. What made you turn out like this?" Mark couldn't help but smile.

"You"

*

* * *

**The quote _The Heart Has Reasons That Reason Cannot Know_ is not mine. It belongs to Blaise Pascal.**

**Please let me know what you think. **


	11. Chapter 11

**Aww guys you are the best! Thank you so much for the wonderful reviews! They make me so excited and wanting to write more. It's the best part of my day when I turn on my computer, come to and see I have more reviews! YAY.**

**I guess there's nothing else to say about the chap. So here it goes...**

* * *

"Lex?" Mark said to the dark.

"Hmm?"

"Can I go get a blanket?"

"No"

"But…"

"No"

"Lexie…"

"No"

"Would you stop saying no?"

"No"

"No, what?"

"Huh?"

"No you won't stop saying no or you were just continuing with the nos?"

"Let's start over"

"I think we should go to bed"

"But I'm fine just where I am"

"We should sleep in bed. Or at least cover ourselves"

"I don't feel like moving"

"You won't have to move"

"I don't want you to move either"

"I promise you won't even notice"

"Oh my God. You are so annoying"

"What?"

"You won! Go get the damn blanket already"

"Oh, really?"

"Really what?"

"You think I'm annoying?"

"Yes"

"OK" Mark got up and walked to the closet where they kept the blankets. He covered Lexie with one of them, walked to the bed and laid down.

"What are you doing?" she opened her eyes.

"I'm lying in my bed"

"Very funny. No, I mean seriously"

"I'm being very serious. I'm gonna get some sleep"

"You're gonna leave me here?"

"Thinking about it"

"I doubt it"

"Try me"

"Why are you doing this?"

"I'm annoying, remember?"

"Oh my God"

Mark laughed. "When you're ready"

"Oh, no. I won't be getting ready mister"

"So I guess you'll just spend the night on the floor. Good thing I covered you"

"I guess I will"

They both turned to the other side, facing away from each other. Mark covered his face with a pillow so he wouldn't laugh while Lexie had to do that with her hand.

They started turning to peek at each other at the exact same moment. When their eyes met they quickly returned to their positions as if nothing had happened.

"Come on, Grey just give in already. I know you can't sleep without me by your side"

"I believe _you're_ the one who can't sleep without _me_ by _your_ side"

"OK. If you don't want to…I was just trying to make this for you, you know? But since you don't want to…good night" he turned off his lamp.

Silence fell into the room. Moments later he heard Lexie's voice. "I want a pillow"

"There's one right here beside me" Mark said.

"Mark?"

"Yes?"

"Nothing"

"No, now you have to tell me"

"It was really nothing. Just wanted to know if you were still awake" she yawned.

"Lex?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you sleepy?"

"A little"

He got up from bed and walked to her. "Come on you" he picked her up and took her to rest on the warm and soft blankets.

"Aw, thank you" Lexie said with joy. She shrank her body and closed her eyes as Mark kissed her cheek. "Good night"

*

"Have you talked to him yet?" Sadie asked Lexie excitedly.

"Damn it. I forgot. I'm so sorry!" Lexie said. "I'll do it today, I promise!"

"Aw" Sadie's excitement vanished. "Oh but that's OK. Sorry if it seems as if I'm ordering you to do it. It's just that I'm so psyched by this"

"I know you are and don't worry…I understand you. It doesn't look as if you're ordering."

"Thanks Lexie" they both smiled. "So what are you doing right now?"

"Since Yang won't let me stay in good cases in a row I've been assigned to the clinic"

Sadie laughed. "We have such loveable residents. I'm on the clinic as well"

"Nice" Lexie said.

"Come on" Sadie said. "Let's go treat some sick people "

*

"Lexie, Sadie" George said.

Sadie rolled her eyes "O'Malley"

"You're both on the clinic today?"

"Yes" Sadie answered while Lexie remained silent.

"Good. Sadie could you go to curtain three, please?"

Sadie eyed Lexie. "Sure" she said in a low tone as George handed her a chart.

"Lexie, can I talk to you?"

"The place looks pretty crowded for us to be chating"

"It will only take a minute"

Lexie looked at him.

"Look, please I don't want for there to be this weird vibe between us. Can't we just make this work?"

"What exactly do you mean by _make this work_?"

"I mean we work together Lexie. I don't want to be inside this Hospital and not be able to at least talk to you"

Lexie sighed. "Who said I wasn't talking to you?"

"Well, I…" George was out of words.

"Nothing's changed" Lexie said. "I would just appreciate if you kept your unpleasant thoughts or comments to yourself"

"But…" George wanted to say he was just trying to help but he knew that would only cause trouble.

"George, can I borrow you for a second?" Meredith came out of nowhere. "Oh, hey Lexie"

"Hi Mere"

There was a brief silence. "Well go to curtain nine then Lexie"

"What's up?" George asked Meredith as they were walking down the corridor.

"Were you talking to Lexie about Sloan?"

George stopped walking and looked at Meredith with confusion and curiosity in his eyes.

"She had that defensive look in her eyes" Meredith explained. "And she told me you talked about that with her the other day"

"But…"

"Because I went to talk to her about the same thing. She told me I was the second person who had approached her about it that day"

"So you also think it's a bad idea?" George asked.

"Who are we kidding George? I thought Lexie knew better"

"That's exactly what I said"

"Come on…she knows about his reputation. Why in the world would she take a chance like that?"

"But she's closed her mind about it. She's not accepting our advice"

"You know maybe she's right. She told me we are the ones who don't know him. What of that's it?"

"Do you seriously believe that?"

Mer just remained silent.

"I just wish she would listen you know? If she keeps getting attached like this in the end her fall will just be harder"

"Yeah"

*

"Mark, I'm dying with curiosity. Have you talked to her?"

_Damn it_. Mark looked at Callie guiltily.

"Oh, I can't believe you forgot"

"I forgot"

"Why?"

"I just did"

"Oh Mark, please, please, please! I need to know"

"Relax Callie. It's not like I didn't do it because I didn't want to. I just forgot."

"But will you please ask today?"

"I will"

"Promise?"

"Promise"

"Won't forget?"

"I won't"

"Good"

"Right, then"

"So, how are things going?"

"Things are great"

"That's nice. I hope I'll be able to say that soon as well. You know, if you will help me"

Mark rolled his eyes. "If you tell me to remember one more time, I'll forget"

Callie slapped his shoulder. "Well I'm going to go now since you have nothing for me. Talk to you _tomorrow_"

"Forgetting" Mark called as Callie walked out the door.

*

"No lunch with Sloan today?" Sadie asked sitting beside Lexie.

"Our hours didn't match today"

"Bummer"

"That's OK"

"What's wrong with you?"

"What?"

"You seem a little distracted"

"Oh, I…it's nothing"

"Oh come on. You can't tell me it's nothing"

"It's silly"

"It's definitely not silly from the look on your face"

"Well it's just that both Mer and George told me that being with Mark was a mistake, that I would end up getting hurt and…"

"Oh, Lexie" Sadie cut her off.

"And today George was talking to me when Mer came over to talk to him and I just feel that they were talking about us"

"But you can't possibly believe _that_ right?"

"Believe what?"

"That they're right about you ending up getting hurt?"

"No, it's not that. It just bothers me to know that they are discussing my personal life behind my back"

Sadie rolled her eyes. "Don't let them get to you. Death is just…well she doesn't exactly have people skills"

"I know…"

"And O'Malley…are you really going to let him get to you _about a relationship_ of all things after all that's happened?"

"I…"

"You're not having second thoughts, right?"

"What?"

"I mean, you pinned over George while he seemed oblivious and now that you're with Sloan he's kind of showing inter…"

"No" Lexie said. "I'm not having second thoughts. I'm just really annoyed by this. Why can't people just leave us be?"

"You're happy, aren't you? You seem happy, yesterday when we saw you with him at lunch…you both seemed really content"

"Yes" Lexie said. "We're happy"

"Well then just be happy. To hell with anyone who is opposed to it. You will show them eventually that they wronged about you"

Lexie was facing her plate.

"Hey' Sadie squeezed her shoulder. "You can count on me, OK?"

Lexie smiled sincerely.

*

Lexie closed the door to Mark's office.

"Hey" she said tiredly.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Oh, just the usual"

Mark raised his eyebrows. "Are you sure?"

Lexie nodded as she pulled Mark down to the couch, his back against the arm of the furniture, and rested her head on his chest.

"Lexie?"

"Yes"

"I don't believe you"

"What?"

"Something is bothering you"

"No it's not"

"Tell me" Mark ignored her "I want to help you"

Lexie remained silent as she moved her hand up and down against his chest.

"Did O'Malley say anything to you?" Mark said suddenly.

"Mark…"

"He did, didn't he?"

"Well, nothing to _me _but I get the feeling that people are talking about us"

"Does that make you worry?"

"It doesn't make me worry but it annoys me"

"What are they saying?"

"That this won't work"

"Do you believe them"?

"You know I don't"

He kissed her forehead. "Ignore them, Lex. People will be people. They always have to see bad in everything" Mark ran his index and thumb through Lexie's locket and kissed the pendant when he reached that point. She smiled and kissed him softly on the lips engaging to a longer and deeper kiss the moment after. Her hands moved to his face while Mark gently caressed her temples. After the third peck subsequent their kiss Lexie's pager went off.

"Yang wants me"

"Not as much as I do"

Lexie laughed. "Don't worry. Not long until I'm all yours"

"So I'll see you later at the apartment?"

Lexie kissed kiss upper lip. "You definitely will"

*

"Three, intern who's not mine" Cristina said referring to Sadie. "You're going to scrub in with Torres today. She's going to repair a exposed fracture"

"I guess you were wrong about Yang not letting you get in two good cases in a row"

"I wonder why she's being so generous"

"I think we can guess" Sadie whispered to Lexie's ear when they saw Cristina staring at Owen. They both faced the other direction so they wouldn't burst into laughter.

"Go, scrub in right now" Cristina snapped back to life.

Lexie and Sadie went to the locker room and took off their earrings, watches and bracelets staying only with their scrubs. Lexie then carefully removed her locket and put it safe in her locker when Cristina appeared at the door.

"Hm, excuse me? Do you two want me to put One and God-knows-what-her-name-is in the case instead of you? Move!"

Lexie slammed the door to her locker and walked to the OR beside Sadie.

*

"Grey, Harris" Callie flushed a little as she said the last name.

"Dr. Torres" Lexie stood up as Sadie was still as stone.

"Great, so the two of you can stand over there. I'll ask you guys stuff and if there are any questions just bring them on"

"OK" Lexie said. But Sadie was unable to speak. Lexie looked at her with a knowing face while gesturing towards Callie.

"You're seeing it too?" Sadie asked Lexie.

"I think anyone who has a sight is seeing it. But don't worry…I'm still talking to Mark. It will be the first thing I'll do when I catch him later."

*

Mark heard a knock on the door and called "Come in"

To his surprise the person he saw coming from behind the door was Meredith.

"Oh" he didn't know what to say. "Um, is everything OK?"

"Relatively speaking"

Mark waited for her to say more. "Is Derek…"

"Derek is doing just fine" Meredith ended the sentence once more.

Mark really didn't know how to act around Meredith. Why didn't she say what she was there for already?

"So, why did you…?"

"I'm here because I need to speak to you"

_Really?_ Mark thought. He felt so unbelievably uncomfortable around Meredith. If he were a stranger he never would have believed anyone who told him she and Lexie were sisters.

Mark knew what this was about. What else could it be about? If it wasn't Derek what other subject would Meredith go to talk to him about? But he didn't want to ask. He waited for her to say.

"Here's the thing" she began. "I know I'm not a part of Lexie's life but as strange as that may seem I don't want bad things happening to her"

Mark took a deep breath before he could say anything. "I thought Derek was OK by this"

"_He _is"

"Oh, I see" Mark said calmly. "So _you're_ the one who's against it?"

"Do you blame me?"

"I don't understand what you mean by _bad things happening to her_"

"I think you know what I mean" Meredith said. "You know _yourself _better than no one. So I guess you know how this is going to end"

"It's different this time"

"So I've heard. That's what everybody says. But it's never truly different. People don't just change like that"

"They can" Mark said.

"I don't think it's that simple" Meredith said.

"Look, you may not believe it but I do truly care about Lexie"

"So this should be easy" Meredith had a serious expression.

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying you are Mark Sloan and, like I said before, you know yourself. If you truly care about Lexie like you said you should see for what's best for her and not trap her into this. The more you keep having this thing with her the more she'll get attached and the worse it will be when you realize that you haven't really changed and this whole thing you're having with her is just not you"

Mark couldn't say anything. He felt attacked and exposed. Meredith didn't say anything more. She just looked at him with an unreadable expression and made her way outside of his office.

*

Lexie and Sadie were unscubbing and changing to normal clothes in the locker room after Callie's surgery.

"That was great" Sadie said pulling her blouse over her neck. "That surgery was totally worth it"

"Two times worth it" Lexie said in a singing tone.

"Don't make me come after you" Sadie pointed at Lexie.

Lexie was smiling when she reached for her coat and started going through her things in the locker. Sadie noticed a while later that her smile vanished and she became white as snow.

"Lexie, what's wrong?"

"My locket" Lexie squeaked.

"What?"

"The one Mark gave to me?" she said unsteadily.

"Oh!" Sadie remembered. "OH" her eyes widened.

"Oh dear God"

"What happened?" Sadie asked.

"It's not here, it's not here' Lexie panicked.

"Calm down, we'll find it. Don't panic or it will only be harder to find"

Lexie moved everything from her locker but still wasn't able to find it.

"When did you last see it?"

"This afternoon. I just took it off to get into the OR. I always do that"

"Are you sure you put it in the locker?"

"Positive" she said almost screaming.

"OK. Lexie, breathe. It's going to be OK."

"I'm already running late" she started at her watch. "What do I do?"

"You should go find him and explain what happened"

"Do you think he'll freak out?"

"He's _your_ boyfriend, Lexie"

"Well, he didn't exactly tell me to use it all the time. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood today"

"Exactly" Sadie tried to encourage.

"God, why is this happening to me?"

"Go ahead Lexie, you go home find him and I'll keep searching. Damn I'll even look on the house. Maybe you don't remember but you left it there"

"OK" Lexie said nervously. "Thank you Sadie, good night"

"See you tomorrow" Sadie called as Lexie vanished from the locker room.

*

Her whole way up the elevators was tense. Her heart was throbbing in her chest and her stomach had fallen_. It's going to be OK_. She thought. _Sadie will find it. I know that she'll find it. And Mark won't even notice. Men never notice these things._

When she opened the door she saw Mark sitting on the couch with a serious expression in his face. _No, it's not possible that he already knows. It just isn't. _Lexie thought.

"Mark?" Lexie asked nervously.

"H-Hey" he said quickly.

"Everything OK?" She prayed he wouldn't bring the subject up.

"Lexie…I need to talk to you"

_Goddamn it__. How the hell does he know? _

"Come here" he offered her the seat next to him. Lexie sat down real slowly pulling her coat closed so her neck was covered.

"There's no easy way for me to say this" he began. Lexie's heart turned cold.

"Look, Lexie…I don't know what's this thing that's going on between the two of us but I just wanted you to know that…I'm setting you free"

"What?" Lexie had no idea what it _really_ felt like to have your stomach to drop. Until now.

"I just think it's the best thing to…"

"What do you mean you're setting me free?"

"Lexie, you've only been in Seattle Grace for less than a year. You don't know me, not the real me, anyways"

"No, no. I can't believe this is happening. Who talked to you?"

"No one talked to me" he said. "I just came across that thought today"

"So you're telling me that you simply started thinking about us and came up with that idea out of nowhere?"

"That's what I'm telling you"

"Well I don't believe it" Lexie squeaked.

"Lexie, you're a good girl. You're kind and understanding, patient and beautiful. You deserve someone who will be able to give you the things you want. A life, a family, happiness. I'm not the type for that stuff. I'm no good for you"

"Are you really the one who gets to decide that?"

"I know myself" Mark felt his heart break into a million pieces when he saw the despair in Lexie's eyes.

"So it's over?" Lexie asked him.

"Well…" Mark couldn't bring himself to say that.

"Fine" Lexie took her purse and walked away from him.

"Lexie…it doesn't have to be this way" He stood up.

"No, you don't get to blame _me _for this" she said. A mixture of anger and weakness.

"I'm not blaming you…"

Lexie started going through her purse. "Here's your key." She slammed it down the coffee table next to the door.

Mark felt powerless. There was nothing he could do to change that. He never thought he could feel, in his life, as sad as he was feeling now.

Lexie opened the front door and stopped by the hall. "Goodbye, Dr. Sloan" she slammed it violently and remained still where she was. Mark came closer to the door from the inside and rested his ear against it. Lexie leaned back on it and went all the way down hitting the floor as she finally let the tears wash down her face.

*

Sadie was sitting on Mer's couch when she heard the front door slamming. She turned her face to see Lexie walk past the hall real fast.

"Lexie?" she called. "Wait up" she heard her steps rushing up the stairs. When she reached the lower step Lexie had already climbed it all. "What's the rush?" Sadie climbed up the stairs slowly.

_Oh my God. Maybe she's asked him and came back with all the news_

When she opened the door to the attic she started speaking "Lexie, what's with the hurry…do you have juicy new…"

She saw Lexie was lying in bed with her face covered by pillows.

_Oh no._

"Lexie?" she said softly. There was no answer. "What happened?" she sat at the end of the bed.

_This couldn't possibly about the locket__._

"Lexie?" Sadie touched her shoulder. She could hear her sobs.

"Please leave me alone" a sound came from Lexie.

"Tell me what happened. I'm only here to help"

Lexie lifted her reddened face which made Sadie swallow. "He broke up with me"

"Oh, Lex" Sadie didn't know what to say. "It wasn't because of the locket, was it?"

"No, he didn't even notice it, I think. He just kept saying he was not good enough for me and blah blah blah"

"Just like the others said?"

"Exactly but he said no one had talked to him. That he came up with that on his own. Do you believe that?"

"I don't know. I really don't know."

Lexie buried her face once more on the covers. Sadie moved to sit completely on the bed and placed Lexie's face on her lap while moving her hair back and forth. "It's OK, Lexie, it's going to be OK".

*

* * *

**Don't hate me guys 8O. Just keep in mind that I, like you all, am totally and completely in love with Mark/Lexie.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Aww guys thank you so much for all your reviews! I have to say I was kind of nervous before posting last chapter because of what in entailed but I now know most of you understood it and that made me happy.**

**Hope you guys keep enjoying this. I don't think there's much to say about this chapter. So here it goes...**

* * *

"Lexie?" the first thing she heard when she opened her eyes to the morning sun was Sadie's voice. She lifted her face from beneath the covers and rubbed her swollen eyes with the back of her hand.

Sadie didn't want to ask if she was OK so she just tried to talk about something else. "Hey, you want to walk with me to the hospital today?"

"I'm not going" Lexie got out of bed.

"But..."

"I just remembered I had already spoken with the Chief and Dr. Yang about taking the day off today"

"Oh" _Really?_ Sadie sounded disappointed. "So...what are you going to do then?"

"I don't know" Lexie answered. "I really don't know" her voice failed as she remembered what she would be doing that day if things hadn't gone the way they did the prior night.

"Well hey, I get out at seven today. Do you want to do something wild later?"

The corner of Lexie's lips moved up a bit. "Maybe"

"Great" Sadie said excitedly. "I'll come pick you up at, say, 7:10?"

"You're literally going to run out of the hospital?"

"Yes" Sadie said.

Lexie shook her head kiddingly.

"Well I have to get ready now" Sadie said slowly. "But you won't even notice the time passing by. When you least expect it I'll be knocking on ther door"

Sadie saw Lexie was doing her best to appear happy and that was really bothering the blonde. She wanted so much to say comforting words to Lexie but she couldn't do that without bringing up something she didn't want to.

"Sadie, I'm sorry I didn't get the chance to ask..."

Sadie shook her head as if telling her it was really OK. "I should run. Bye Lexie"

*

"Good morning" Derek said as Sadie entered the kitchen.

"Morning" she replied. "Where's Death?"

"She left early today. Her shift started at five"

"Oh, boy"

"So, what's going on between the two of you?"

"Excuse me?"

"I mean, what's the story behind Death and Die?"

"Oh" Sadie laughed. "That's not for all ears to hear" she grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and drank from it.

"By the way, am I crazy or did Lexie spend the night here?"

Sadie's eyes widened. "I think I saw her walk past the corridor at some point"

"That's weird. The last time she slept in...it's been so long I can't even remember"

"Go figure" Sadie shrugged nervously.

She thanked the Lord when Izzie came in. "Oh, hey guys"

"Look, it's my time" Sadie looked at her watch and rushed out the door.

*

Sadie managed to make it to the hospital. She was panting when she got to her fellow interns. The first thing she felt when she saw Mark walk past them was anger but she then noticed the look on his face. It was a fact that he had been up all night. He quickly looked down when their eyes met and kept walking beside Hunt discussing something she couldn't hear.

"Sadie?" she heard George's voice.

She turned around slowly. "Yes?"

"Have you seen Meredith?"

"No"

"Didn't you guys come together?"

"No, she had already left when I woke up"

"Oh, I really wanted to talk to her. Well if you se her please tell her to go find me"

"Mmm-Hmm"

When that sentence replayed inside her mind. _"Well it's just that both Mer and George told me that being with Mark was a mistake, that I would end up getting hurt and..." _she couldn't help but become alert.

"Where the hell is three?" Cristina snapped behind her.

"Three? Oh, you mean Lexie?"

"Of course I mean Lexie, who else would I be talking about?"

"I-I don't think she'll be coming?"

"What do you mean she won't be coming? Is she freaking kidding me?"

"Um..." _Didn't Lexie say she had cleared Yang on ther absence?_

"Shut up" Cristina said. "I'm going to kill her"

*

Lexie closed the door to her car and carried a bouquet of flowers with her as she walked through the muddy ground. She stopped and carefully placed them beside the cold granite stone as she sat down.

"I would do anything to be able to feel you holding me again now" she said as tears made tracks on her cheeks. She dried her face with the palm of her hands.

"I brought you your favorites" she tried to smile while picking up the flowers. "And they are all yellow, your favorite color. But this one..." she sobbed. "This one is red" she paused. "Do you remember when we went to that fancy party when I was like seven and you made me wear that horrible yellow dress? And you were furious when I spilled the dessert all over it" Lexie's voice was becoming faint. "I believe it was something with raspberry"

She stopped talking when the water in her eyes made it difficult for her to see.

"I miss you Mom. Wish you were here"

*

"Not now Callie" Mark said as his friend entered his office.

"Geez, what's wrong with you?"

"I said not now"

"Mark..."

"No, I haven't talked to her, OK? Please leave me alone"

Callie didn't understand her friend's attitude. She opened her mouth to say something but Mark looked at her. "Callie!"

"Fine" she lifted her arms making a surrender gesture and left the room. In her quick movement to leave the office she bumped into Sadie who was just walking by.

"Whoa, sorry" she said holding Sadie's arm so they wouldn't fall.

"That's OK" Sadie smiled.

Callie didn't know where the guts were coming from when the words came out of her mouth.

"So, you want to hit Joe's tonight?"

"I would love to. Oh, but damn, I already got plans" Sadie said.

"Oh" Callie felt all her hope shatter. "Well then maybe some other time"

"Or you could do what I'm doing. You could come with me" Sadie wasn't sure Lexie would be OK with it but she didn't want to miss that chance. She would check with her later.

A smile lit Callie's face. "Sounds great" she said.

*

Mark was staring at the OR board when a group of interns walked past him. He looked at tall the faces but hers wasn't there. He wanted to see her so much even if it were for just few seconds. He needed to know she was OK. Another group of interns and no sign of Lexie. When he saw Sadie he was determined to ask but the Chief got to him first.

"Sloan, Yang told me Grey hasn't shown for work today"

Mark felt every fiber on his being being stabbed. _Lexie hadn't gone to work?_ Sadie kept close trying to pay attention.

"Chief?"

"I'm asking you if you know her whereabouts since, you know..."

Mark looked at Sadie who eyed him while twitching her mouth.

"Ah, well yes Chief...she's...she's sick"

"Oh, is everything OK?" Richard looked concerned.

"It's nothing...she just felt a little nauseous"

Sadie was shaking her head desperately from behind the Chief. Mark was really confused.

"And why didn't you tell me this before?"

"I, um, couldn't find you sir"

Mark wished the Chief would stop talking to him. He needed to talk to Sadie but Alex came over her and assigned her something to do.

_Great._ Mark thought as the Chief remained talking.

*

It was lunchtime and Callie was sitting beside Sadie.

"I haven't seen Grey today" she said. "Do you know where she is?"

"I..."

Callie started speaking again before Sadie could complete her trade of thought.

"When you see her you should tell her to go see Mark. He acted all cranky earlier. He may be needing her you know?"

Sadie felt like she had to say something. "Callie? Um, Sloan and Lexie...th-they broke up"

Callie dropped her fork. "WHAT?"

"Shh"

"I'm sorry...what?"

"I don't know details. All I know is that they're not together anymore"

"Well that explains" Callie said. "But why?"

"Something about not being good enough"

"Oh no" Callie said.

"Yeah, and Lexie didn't come today. She told me she had taken the day off but now since I know that is not true, we all know what's the probable reason"

"Damn it" Callie couldn't believe it.

"Tell me about it. I hope you don't mind...she's the one with whom I was going out today. I'm gonna try to cheer her up"

"Oh not at all. We should reschedule"

"What about coming along? The more, the better"

"Don't you think it will be weird?"

"I don't think Lexie will mind. But I'm going to check with her just to make sure"

"Well as long as she's not weirded out about it"

"Of course" Sadie assured.

"Well lunchtime is over for me" Callie said. "See you later Sadie"

*

"Lexie?" Sadie finally managed to get her on the phone. "Is it OK if Callie comes along with us tonight?"

"Callie as in Dr. Torres?" Lexie asked.

"Yes?" Sadie said uneasily.

"Sure" Lexie said.

"Are you sure, Lexie? Cause if you think it's weird..."

"It's fine. Why would it be weird?"

"I don't..." Sadie changed the subject. "So what have you been doing all day? The Chief missed you"

"Oh, God...Am I fired?"

Sadie laughed. "Relax, Sl...we took care of it. Why didn't you tell me you just didn't want to come?"

"I didn't want you to think I was pathetic"

"You know I wouldn't"

"You still haven't told me where we're going"

"That's because I don't even know. But we're gonna have fun. I promise"

*

"Mark? I think I'm gonna do it today. No...I think I'm gonna do it now" Derek said.

"What?" Mark asked.

"Remember I told you I was going to propose to Meredith?"

_Oh God. This couldn't be happening to him._

"Oh, of course"

"So? I think I'm just going to do it! What do you think?"

"I...I think it's good for you, man"

"Thanks" Derek smiled. "Where is Lexie? I still haven't seen her"

Just to hear her name made something change inside of him.

"She..." Mark felt this unexplainable relief when Owen stuck his head in and called for him after two knocks.

"Well, you go do your thing" Mark tapped Derek on the shoulder. "Good luck"

"Thanks" Derek said as he felt shivers take over his body.

*

Hours later Callie was finally done with all her work for the day. She really wanted to talk to Mark but he was nowhere within reach. He had already left the hospital and his phone kept sending her to voicemail. She decided she would go out and talk to him first thing in the morning then.

"I like your outfit" she heard Sadie's voice.

"Thanks. I like yours too"

"Shall we?"

"Let's do it"

They had already picked Lexie up and now the three of them were in their way to bowling.

"This ought to be fun it not funny" Sadie commented.

"Totally" Callie replied.

"I've only bowled like 3 times in my entire life" Lexie shared. "I really don't know how to"

"You don't have to" Sadie said. "This is just about getting a little distracted"

They finally got to the place and rented all the required equipment. The machine sorted thir names in alfabetical order so Callie stepped forward first.

"Yes!" Callie screamed as she stricked all the pins down.

"This is going to be hard" Lexie tried to lift a blue ball but it was too heavy. She then wrapped her fingers around the lighter one and threw it over the lane.

"You've got to be freaking kidding me" she said as the ball went down the gutter.

Sadie and Callie exchanged looks. Sadie threw her ball and knocked down eight out of the ten pins. They kept playing for about half an hour and Lexie was clearly behind.

"I hate this freaking game"

"Who wants drinks?" Callie asked.

"Good idea" Sadie said.

Callie brought three glasses of vodka shortly. She started tasting her drink, Sadie was sipping hers and Lexie turned the glass over, leaving it emptly in a blink.

"Hey, it's time for round two" Sadie called.

As they played the score remained the same. The time when Lexie was more excited was when she knocked down six pins.

"OK, it was funny at first leading all those balls to the gutter but now I'm just getting annoyed"

"Maybe we should just go home" Sadie declared.

"No, you should enjoy your time with Callie"

"But..."

"No buts" Lexie said. "I'm fine. Seriously. Besides, you two should enjoy some alone time together"

Sadie still wasn't sure. "But I promised I would make you have some fun tonight"

"And I did, I promise. My face and mouth won't let me show but I swear I'm laughing inside"

Sadie didn't believe a word.

"And I'm really tired" Lexie said. "I should get some sleep"

"I'll get you a cab" Sadie said. "I'll be right back Callie"

"Bye, Callie" Lexie waved.

"You're leaving already?"

"Yeah, I'm really tired. And I have an early start tomorrow"

"OK then. Good night Lexie"

"See you tomorrow"

Sadie asked the cab driver to call her once Lexie was safe and sound at the address she had given him. She was only able to relax and enjoy the rest of the evening when her phone rang and the man assured her everything was fine.

*

Through his window he could see the night sky. The stars were shinning bright. The few clouds that rested peacefully in the big dark didn't represent a threat to the rainless weather.

The little red light over the table seemed to be flashing for about fourty minutes now. Mark pressed the button so he could hear the message.

_Mark? Where are you man? _It was Derek's voice_. I did it. And she said yes. We are all over at Joe's, I'm expecting your presence_. The message ended.

Mark was happy for his friend. He really was. But what could he do? He didn't want to leave home especially if that meant celebrating when his mood wasn't in for that at all.

_Derek won't forgive me if I don't show up_. He decided to at least stay there for ten minutes. For his friend.

When he was leaving he noticed the untouched key by the table beside the door. He exhaled holding the little metal between his fingers as he headed to the elevator.

*

"It was Meredith" Sadie said to Callie as she flipped her cell closed. "Apparently she's engaged to Derek now and we're all expected at Joe's"

"No kiding" Callie was taken by surprise.

"Yeah" Sadie answered.

"Whoa, you seem thrilled" Callie was sarcastic.

"No, it's not that" she stopped. "Of course I'm excited. I'm just surprised"

Callie laughed. "Let's go then"

Sadie nodded and they started walking to the parking lot.

*

"Here's to the finally engaged couple" Joe shouted and everyone drank from their glasses.

Sadie and Callie were just arriving by then. They greeted everyone and congratulated the happy couple.

"Where's Lexie and Mark?" Derek asked.

"Lexie's at home now. She was with us tonight but she wasn't feeling very well so..."

"Mark's with her?"

"Nah, I don't think so" Sadie said facing Meredith who seemed to try to listen to the conversation.

"Where the hell is he?"

Sadie shrugged.

"I have to get something in the car, I'll be right back" he kissed the top of Mer's head.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Meredith asked Sadie.

"Like what?"

"_That_"

Sadie analyzed Meredith. "What did George want to talk to you about?"

"What?"

"Lexie told me you came after him the other day wanting to talk to him, what was that about?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"Just curious"

"Well it's none of your business"

"Did it have to do with Lexie?"

"Sadie..."

"Because she thinks it did"

"What?"

"Lexie knows you were talking about her"

"Sadie, is Lexie really sick?"

"As a matter of fact she is. But you wouldn't understand this illness"

"Look the fact is that Lex was dating Sloan or whatever that was and..."

_I knew it._ Sadie whispered to herself. "What did you do?"

"What's going on Sadie?"

"They broke up"

"Oh. So what's the problem?"

"How can you be so cold? Lexie is devastated"

"See that's exactly the thing. Yes I'm sure Lexie feels terrible now but at least it spares her from finding out Sloan was cheating on her in the future"

"How can you be so sure of that?"

"Because..." but Sadie couldn't hear no more. She just pleaded Mer to stop talking and walked towards Callie.

*

As Derek was hitting the door of his car he heard someone calling him.

"Derek?"

"Mark! Finally"

"Hey I just wanted to congratulate you"

"Aren't you coming in?"

"I'm sorry but I have things to do at the hospital"

"Oh" Derek exclaimed.

"I'm really sorry, man. Maybe we could do something during the week?"

"Sure" Derek said. "I understand"

Mark nodded. "Congratulations" he hugged his friend. "All the best"

"Thank you. Look I should really get inside now...people are expecting me"

"Of course"

"Bye"

"Good night"

*

Sadie had seen Mark and Derek through the window so when Derek came in she told Callie she would be right back and rushed to catch Mark.

"Dr. Sloan?"

"Harris"

She saw the embarrassment in his face. She knew he hadn't broken up with her just for the sake of doing it. There was something more to it.

Mark wanted to ask about Lexie but he didn't know where Sadie's heart stood. He didn't know if she thought he was a cold hearted bastard or if she understood what was going on. And he didn't know if he had the right to ask. But Sadie knew better.

"If I told you she's OK I would be lying"

Mark hated himself more than anything.

"But she's hanging in there" Sadie continued. "Well at least she's trying" She wanted to ask what had happened but she thought it would be best to leave it to another time.

"I haven't seen her all day" Mark's quiet voice spoke.

*

* * *

** Sorry for the lack of ML in this chap. I promise things won't continue like this, even if they remain separated (if that's the case)!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Thank you for your reviews! :D Saw the episode and liked it despite the fact we had no scenes. But I do love it when they work together and I liked it when Lexie said she was going to get her superior.**

**Sucks that now we're getting ANOTHER hiatus after practically just coming back from one. UGH, I hate this. Let's keep busy with the writing then...**

* * *

When Meredith, Derek, Izzie, Alex and Sadie got home after long hours of drinks and chatter at Joe's they all sat in the living room.

"I still can't believe you guys are finally engaged" Alex commented.

"Yeah, it was a long and sinuous road but we finally reached the end" Derek smiled.

"Woot" Izzie was past drunk.

"Well I don't mean to be a party pooper but we all still have to work tomorrow" Meredith declared.

"You just want to go to your room with Derek" Alex cut in. "We know"

Smiles surrounded the place. "She's right" Derek said pulling her up the couch by her hand. "Good night, everyone"

"Have fun" Alex joked.

"Oh, wait just a second" Derek said to Meredith once they reached the hall. "I'm gonna check on Lexie"

When there was no answer to the knock on her door Derek opened it slowly to see Lexie lying in bed, her face turned to the other side. He then closed it carefully and went back to his room.

"She must really be feeling sick" he said to Meredith. "I think she's been asleep all evening"

"Let her rest" Meredith said. "We'll talk to her tomorrow. Now, come here"

Derek did as she said.

"I think we should get to bed too, Iz" Alex announced.

"But I love it here" Izzie sang.

"You love your bed and pillows as well" Alex pulled her up carefully and walked her to the room. "Good night, Sadie. See you tomorrow"

"Yeah, Sadie" Izzie said excitedly. "Sleep well"

When the silence fell into the house Sadie went up to the attic. She peeked inside and Lexie was just as Derek had just seen.

"Are you pretending you're sleeping?" Sadie asked.

Lexie turned around immediately. "Oh, it's you" she sat up.

"Hey" Sadie greeted. "Are you OK?" she regretted asking that question.

"Fine" Lexie said without expression. "So, what happened? You've been with Callie all this time?"

"Actually…" Sadie paused_. How would she say that? _"We went to Joe's a little after you left. You know…to celebrate"

Lexie raised her eyebrows.

"Your sister's engagement"

"What?"

"Yeah, apparently Derek finally managed to ask and got her to say yes"

"Mmm" was Lexie's comment.

"By the way…I told everyone you were feeling sick. That's why you didn't go to work or Joe's today"

"Thanks" Lexie's voice said in a whisper.

Silence filled the room. "Well I should let you sleep" Sadie said. Lexie didn't say anything. "Night, Lex. Tomorrow you owe me a walk to the Hospital" she smiled.

Lexie nodded. "See you later"

*

"Lexie, are you feeling better?" Derek asked when he saw her the other morning. His voice full of concern.

"Congratulations" she didn't answer.

"Thank you" Derek smiled.

"Did you guys set a date?"

"Not yet" Meredith said entering the kitchen.

"Oh, hey Mer" she whispered. "Congratulations"

Meredith nodded. "So, Lexie. What's new with you? You were sick yesterday?"

"Just feeling a little nauseous"

"But you're OK now?"

"Getting there"

Meredith looked at her. "Derek would you please go get my coat? I forgot it in the room"

"Bossing me already?" he joked.

Meredith crossed her arms.

"Going" Derek took the last sip of this orange juice.

"So, Lexie" Meredith started. She thought it was useless to talk about random stuff so she just went straight to the point. "Sadie told me some things"

Lexie had sharp eyes. "Sadie told you some things?"

"She did. You guys are becoming good friends, aren't you?"

Lexie really wasn't in the mood for that. "What do you want, Meredith?"

"She told me you thought George and I were talking about you"

"Weren't you?"

Meredith was taken off guard. "You could say that"

"Why?"

"Because we were concerned about you"

"Well you don't have to be anymore. Mark and I broke up"

Meredith had an unreadable expression.

"That was what you guys were talking about, wasn't it?"

"You did?" Meredith pretended she didn't already know.

"Yes, we did"

"Why?" Meredith asked.

"Because"

Meredith didn't need to know. She just felt a mixture of relief and doubt. Had Sloan done it? Whoever it was she just kept telling herself she was glad that now Lexie was free from getting hurt in the future. She opened her mouth to say something but Lexie interrupted her.

"If you say _'I warned you'_ I swear I'll…"

Alex came in that exact moment greeting them both. "Good morning, people"

Lexie nodded in his direction while Meredith remained silent. A moment later Sadie appeared at the door and called. "Hey, Grey. You ready?"

"I'm going with Derek" Meredith informed.

"I know" Sadie explained. "I meant Lexie"

"Sure" Lexie walked out the kitchen and the two interns started making their way to work.

*

"Grey" the Chief greeted her. "Are you feeling capable of working today?"

"Yes, sir" she said. "I'm sorry for yesterday. I was just feeling a little…"

"Yes I know. Sloan cleared me on that. Well then just go find Yang and let us know if you fell sick again"

"Thank you Chief" Lexie turned to face Sadie. "Sloan?"

"Yeah. Isn't that strange?" Sadie said nervously.

"I thought you said _you_ told everyone I was sick"

"Everyone but the Chief" she said.

"Why would he even tell the Chief I was sick?"

"Um, to save you from getting warned? You know we _cannot _just _not_ come to work. Specially us interns"

Lexie didn't want to smile at that but she couldn't help her lip from lifting just a bit. _Stop being stupid Lexie. Have some self respect_. She thought.

*

Callie waited until she was alone with Mark in the meeting room to talk to him.

"Lexie's a mess" she said.

Mark pierced her with his look. "Is this supposed to make me feel better?"

"I'm sorry. That's not what I meant. I'm just saying…what happened Mark?"

"I don't know"

"You don't know?"

"I don't want to talk about it"

Callie saw the sorrow on every aspect of her friend. He wasn't facing her while talking; he was speaking very slowly and with a low tone and he kept exhaling every now and then.

She reached for his hand and squeezed it. "Mark" she said kindly. She waited a while before speaking again. "I'm sorry for yesterday"

"No, I am" Mark said. "I was rude"

"You were not" Callie assured him. "Hey…" there was a knock on the door.

"Torres?" Owen asked. "The Chief is looking for you"

"Thank you Dr. Hunt, I'll be right out"

"You know you can talk to me, right? Whenever, wherever, about anything"

"I know" Mark nodded.

"Good" Callie closed the door behind her.

*

"Dr. Shepherd is going to try something new today. To restore a man's ability to hear. Who wants in?" Bailey asked.

Hands flew in the air. "You" she pointed at Graziella. "Go"

"Yes" the intern celebrated.

"Dr. Sloan is going to repair a girl's mouth today. The poor thing was in an accident and her lips were teared from the corner all the way up to her cheeks. Who's in for that?"

Sadie looked at Lexie who seemed someplace else. "Me" she lifted her arm.

"Harris" she pointed at her.

"Grey, you don't want to scrub in on any surgeries today?"

Lexie came out of her trance. "Dr. Bailey?"

"Am I boring you?"

"No, I'm sorry Dr. Bailey, I just…"

"Well you should go to the clinic then"

_No__. _Sadie thought. "Dr. Bailey, can't she scrub in with me in the Plastic case?"

"The doctors only requested one intern" Bailey started walking away.

"Are you crazy, why didn't you ask to scrub in on this?"

"Why would I?" Lexie asked perplexed.

"Lexie, did you hear anything Bailey said?"

"I did. I don't want to work with him Sadie"

"But…" Sadie stopped. "It's not just that. Would you really rather spend the day at the clinic other than assisting a real surgery?"

"At least the clinic is quieter"

"The clinic is _quieter_?"

"Whatever" Lexie turned around and started for the exit.

*

Derek had been looking for Mark for over fifteen minutes now. He was almost giving up when he saw his friend emerge from the elevator doors.

"So, do you think you'll be able to make it today?" he wanted to know.

"Huh?" Mark asked just noticing Derek's presence.

"Joe's, Mark! Celebrating? My engagement?" Derek felt the need to explain.

"Oh" Mark panicked. He couldn't simply ask his friend if his fiancée would be there. "I have to check"

"Well check then"

"I will"

Realizing his friend hadn't caught his message, Derek started speaking.

"Can you check _now_?"

"Oh" Mark snapped out of his thoughts. "Sure"

Although he didn't have to, he started checking his schedule. But he knew he had nothing to do later that day.

"Try to make sure Lexie will be able to make it as well. If you can't both come today try finding a time when you can" Derek pleaded.

_What was that? Why was he hearing her name come out of everybody's mouths now more than he had in the whole time she had been working at Seattle Grace Hospital? It had to be torture._

Mark decided there was nothing else to do about it. Derek would find out sooner or later, he might as well hear it from the right person. "Derek" he began calmly. "Things between Lexie and I...we're not together anymore"

Derek was perplexed. "Why?"

"She...I..." Mark was asking himself how to explain it. "It was the right thing to do"

"So you're the one who ended it?"

"Yes" _Now I feel better. _

"But...why?" Derek couldn't believe.

"The thing is you were right. When you first found out about us you said I couldn't think about anyone but myself. You were right"

"Mark" Derek hated himself for saying that now.

"Lexie deserves better" his mind drifted away.

"You really care about her, don't you?" Derek saw it in Mark's body language.

"I do"

"I don't understand. If you care about her why break up?"

"Because I don't know if I'll be able to give her what she wants and needs. And she deserves someone who doesn't have a doubt about that. Someone who will just do it"

"Do you really think you wouldn't give those things to her?"

Mark pondered. "Well, my past..."

"Forget the past Mark, I'm talking about _now_"

Doubt filled his mind. He knew Meredith was right, didn't he? He was known for his one night stands and as someone who couldn't commit. Would he be able to turn over a new leaf? He definitely didn't want to wait to see what the answer to that was. He couldn't hurt someone who would lie down with him telling him she would caress his hair until he felt better. Not _her_.

"I'm sorry Derek but I've gor surgery in thirty minutes"

"Will you meet me at Joe's later?"

"I'll try" and with that he left the meeting room.

*

"Dr. Bailey, can I steal Lexie Grey for a second?"

"Sure Dr. Shepherd"

"Hey Lexie" he said sweetly and paused nervously. "Are you feeling better?"

Lexie folded her arms across her chest. "Why are you asking me this again?"

"I am?"

"I get it"

"What?"

"I know what you want to talk about"

"I just wanted to know how you're doing" Derek gave in.

Lexie looked at him. _Wrong question Derek. _

"It was two days ago" that was enough to answer him.

_This was just wrong. Both were clearly hurting. _

_"_Why don't you guys just talk?"

"There's no use" Lexie said.

"Of course there is. There's nothing like a good, honest conversation. Just tell him how you feel"

"He's made his decision" she said hurtfully.

*

"Did you know Mark and Lexie broke up?" Derek asked Meredith.

"Yeah, I just found out"

"No wonder Lexie didn't come to work yesterday"

"Do you know what happened?"

"Mark as always having little expectations on himself"

"He told you that?"

"He said she deserved better"

"Was that all he said?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Just asking. Trying to understand" Meredith shrugged.

"This is terrible, you know? Why did this happen right now when we're engaged?"

"It doesn't necessarily have to be bad"

"They are both miserable, Mer. This was supposed to be happy. They were both supposed to be at our wedding. _Happy_. Now it's just going to be awkward"

"Who knows what will happen until then?" Meredith ran her hand through Derek's back.

"I hate this" he said.

*

He was walking down the hall on his way out of the OR when Lexie turned around the corner. When she saw him she wanted to turn around but she thought that would not seem very subtle so she just kept walking facing down.

They both struggled to fight the thoughts that popped in both their minds. If it had been an ordinary day they would probably greet each other, Mark would say he had to run but that would not stop them from kissing and start making their plans for the night. Lexie would feel the goosebumps she always did every time she felt his breath against her face and Mark would tremble at the touch of her soft skin to his neck.

"I missed you on surgery today" Mark said with the best of intentions.

Lexie stopped walking. _Why is he doing this to me? _"What do you want from me?" Lexie let her emotions get the best of her.

"What do you mean?" Mark asked confused.

"This is unbelievable. You come to me saying you are setting me free..." she moved her index and middle fingers as if representing quotes. "...and now you're telling me you miss me?"

"I didn't mean it like that" Mark said quickly.

Lexie raised her eyebrows. _That hurt._

_Shit. _Mark noticed what he had just said. "No, I mean I didn't mean it like that when I told you I missed you on surgery but that doesn't mean..."

Lexie didn't think she could handle it anymore. She thought she was _starting _to accept the fact that she had to begin moving on but to be this close to him just made all her efforts tear apart. "Stop" she managed to out speak.

"Please just stop talking" she said when she noticed he was going to say something. "Didn't you say you were doing this for me? Well you can't really _set me free_ if you keep tracking me down all the time"

"Lexie I was barely tracking you down"

"You can't do this, OK? You just _can't _come to me after telling me we can't be together and say things like that"

They both wanted to die.

"Lexie..."

"You have to leave me be. Please"

"What are you saying?"

"I already said it. I can't do it, not if I keep running into you all the time. I just can't"

"But Lexie, we work together. There will be cases..."

"And when they come I'll be glad to work on them. For the job. But if I can avoid working on Plastics, then I will"

Mark felt as if he was standing on a rug and someone had violently pulled it from his feet. "Lexie, I'm sorry if I upset you. What I meant when I started talking to you was that you are learning real fast here and I missed you on surgery because you're the best intern we have. It's a shame to put that to waste just because of..." he trailed off.

"The absence of necessity. Did you know that's the definition for freedom? One of them" She said. "I need you to keep your word." Lexie searched for the strength to say that from the very inside of her soul.

That was something he couldn't do. Not when, to Lexie, it meant not talking to her or not coming near her.

"You shouldn't deprive yourself from good cases because of the attending who's on charge. I don't want you to get distracted or behind in work because of this" he said instead.

_Too late Dr. Sloan__. _"I won't" as she said that she slowly turned her back on him and walked away trying to keep a straight face.

*

* * *

**This chapter turned out to be a bit shorter than the previous ones. I've been trying to write it since Thursday but something just wouldn't let me. I re-started, re-started again, erased a lot of parts, wrote new ones and this is what it became! I hope you guys like it :^}**


	14. Chapter 14

**Thank you all for your reviews! They are the best thing about this fic. Sorry I took so long to update. I had a lot to work to do at uni and I was really lazy to type the chapters. I actually think I have this chap written for over weeks but I was tired and not in the mood to type. Good thing is it gave me time to start working on the others. I've written up until chapter 17 by now. I'm gonna continue typing them now that the lazinees is gone for a while.**

**And finally! Grey's is coming back. I can't wait for these last episodes. I think great things awaits us. YAY. OK here it goes then...**

* * *

During the following weeks, eyes and whispers surrounded Mark and Lexie wherever they went. If they were together for some hospital business, people around them would either face away from them awkwardly or deliberately gossip about it with partners right to their face.

Lexie told Sadie the last time they were together that she would physically harm the next person she caught staring at her. Sadie had actually stopped her from doing that several times. "Don't sweat, Lex. People are just idiot and disrespectful" she said. "It's just fresh news and people here need something to keep them occupied since they have no such thing as a life. You'll see…the buzz will be over soon"

And it was. Lexie was glad she could at least do her job in walking through the hospital's corridors without dragging all attention and every eye to her. However, there were still some people who simply wouldn't let it go and Lexie saw herself having to deal with three nurses when she was writing down some charts.

"Look at her" the blonde nurse said from behind the counter the three of them sat.

Lexie could've sworn she heard the tall one say the word _pathetic_.

"Don't say that" the redhead reprehended. "You bitched about it for about a week when he never called _you_ and you knew he wouldn't"

"That's exactly the point" she explained. "This whole hospital knows the man's reputation"

Lexie couldn't help but notice the hostile tone.

"Why think this time it would be any different, you know? She should've known. Once a manwhore, always a manwhore"

Lexie felt her blood heat to that. Yes, she was hurt and maybe even a little mad at Mark but hearing those nurses insult him like that just made her want to jump in their necks. In the time they had spent together Mark had been nothing like that. He had been kind and caring, careful and gentle, he had done things for her people wouldn't think possible. The word _manwhore_ just made her feel uncomfortable and betrayed.

As the nurses continued talking she found herself at the verge of bursting into tears. _Stop talking about him._ She thought as the memories and perspectives she had when they were together emerged to her head. She noticed then that the nurses signed to each other and parted their ways when she heard his deep voice right next to her.

"Dr. Grey? I would like for you to scrub in on my…" but he immediately stopped as her eyes looked up to him.

"Lexie? Are you crying?"

"No" she said quickly pressing her eyes together.

"You were"

"Was not"

"Your eyes are red"

"Yeah, I was rubbing them. You were saying?"

He did not believe her but he assumed he was in no position to insist. "My face reconstruction, I would appreciate it if you scrubbed in"

"Sure, Dr. Sloan"

The initial awkwardness was gone but their interaction wasn't ideal. They were acting strictly professional and were both a little bothered by that.

"Lexie" he began. "I was hoping we could, maybe…" _Don't say 'be friends', Mark. _"You know, coexist"

"We are coexisting"

"I mean not in this weird and professional way" Mark said nervously.

Lexie tried her best to not involve her emotions whenever Mark was around, specially when he brought up issues like that.

"We are acting professional because we're in a place where that's required" she said. "We haven't been out this hospital which would be the place to do that. Act not professionally, I mean" _Damn it, I'm rambling_.

"But if we were…" Mark started.

Lexie simply nodded.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why haven't we been to a place where we don't have to act like _this_? Why haven't we been outside the hospital?"

Lexie sighed. "Why would we?" she asked him but it was more like she was asking herself. "There's just no reason"

Mark started speaking but she cut him off.

"Look, it's OK. We're past _that_, OK? But I just think there's no use. When it's supposed to happen, it will happen and you'll see that what I'm telling you is the truth"

The real truth was Lexie wanted as much as Mark did to be _friends _with him but she thought that was beyond her capacity. How would she act around him? How would she not remember everything? How could she keep strayed?

"I'll see you at the OR soon" and with that she walked slowly to the elevators.

*

"You did an awesome job in there" Mark said while they were scrubbing out from surgery.

Lexie smiled shyly.

"I was serious when I said you're the best intern we've got"

"Thank you" she said quietly.

Mark just wanted to have a reason to keep talking to her, but he couldn't find any.

Lexie nodded towards him and left the room once she was done scrubbing out. In the corridor, walking in her direction, she found her sister.

"Did you just come out of Sloan's surgery?"

"Yes" Lexie answered.

"Cristina is looking for you"

"Oh, OK. Thank you for letting me know" Lexie started making her way to the stairs but was startled when Meredith called.

"Lexie?"

She turned around.

"Are you OK?"

"I'm fine" Lexie didn't understand where that question was coming from.

"You've been acting strange these past few weeks"

"Define strange"

"I don't know, you're different. There's not that, um, let's say, that light and bubbly atmosphere about you anymore"

Lexie asked herself what did her sister care but instead of saying that out loud she just exhaled and said. "I think you're imagining things" she started walking backwards. "I have to find Dr. Yang now, excuse me"

*

Meredith couldn't keep that off her mind as she seated next to Derek at lunchtime.

"Hey" he smiled.

"Hi" she said not responding the enthusiasm.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Oh, nothing" she managed to say as she stared at Mark and Callie who were sitting in the table right next to theirs.

"I'm sorry I haven't talked to her" Mark was telling Callie. "I just don't know how"

"You guys still aren't talking?" Callie asked sympathetically.

"She says everything is OK but it just doesn't feel like it, you know? It's still there" he said.

"What's still there?"

"The awkwardness"

"Oh, I could've sworn you were talking about something else"

Mark sighed.

"Mark, what happened? Please tell me. Don't you trust me?"

"I trust you" he assured.

"So?"

"I already told you. She's better off. I was just going to hold her back in life"

"That's the worst piece of bull I have ever heard"

"What?"

"Mark, you've both been sleepwalking ever since. Why put yourselves through that? Why not try again?"

"No, Callie! I'm not going to put her through that again. She's getting over it. I can't just take it back when she's finally healing and make her go through it all over again"

"Oh, for God's sake, who put that in your mind?"

"Huh?"

"_That_. That crap that you won't be able to give her what she wants, that she's too good for you"

"It's the truth, Callie"

"Yeah, I'm starting to agree with you"

"What?" Mark couldn't hide the hint of hurt.

"As long as you keep telling yourself that that's exactly what's going to happen"

"You think this is easy for me? Don't you see I'm doing this for her?"

"If you took just a moment of your time and observed her, no, just looked at her you would see you're not doing anything _for her_"

Callie got up from the table. "I have a patient to get to now. See you in a bit"

Although she couldn't listen, Meredith observed the whole thing. She was still looking at Mark's table when a woman she had never seen before approached him. She was blonde and had blue eyes. Meredith watched with curiosity as the woman clearly mouthed the words "Dr Sloan".

She continued watching as Mark looked up to the woman.

"May I help you?"

"Hi, I'm Anna! Are you the plastic surgeon?" she asked with a somewhat sensual tone.

"Yes"

The woman giggled. "My friends were so right about you" she was no longer looking him in the eye.

Meredith could tell from where she was sitting that the woman was throwing herself at him.

"I just heard you got out of a bad…"

"Is there something you need?" Mark asked impatiently.

"Is there something you want to give me?"

Mark rolled his eyes and got up from his table. "Excuse me" the blonde woman just stood there with embarrassment on her face. She slowly walked away trying to make sure no one was watching her after being left talking to an empty chair.

Meredith almost opened her mouth to comment it with Derek but stopped as she knew he wouldn't be fond of what she had to say.

Did Mark Sloan just walk away on that gorgeous woman? The thoughts that crossed her mind a few days before rushed back and she did not like when that happened.

_One Week Earlier_

"_Why are you so grumpy?" Meredith asked Derek._

"_Nothing" she knew he was lying._

"_Tell me, Derek" she sat next to him._

"_I love you, Mer. You know that right? And I was larger than life when you said yes but…"_

"_Oh" Meredith sighed._

"_See?" Derek crossed his arms against his chest._

"_See what?" _

"_I shouldn't have told you"_

"_That's not what I meant"_

"_I just don't want to do this without them, you know?"_

"_You won't have to do this without them. They'll be there"_

"_It's not the same"_

"_What do you want to do? You want to postpone the wedding?"_

"_No" Derek's mind was in conflict._

"_Have you talked to Sloan?"_

"_I've talked to both of them" Derek said. "I hate how the universe works, you know? Mark was finally starting to settle when that freaking button started going on inside him telling him he's not worth it"_

"_Yeah" the guilt was rising to her throat._

"_He's had this issue since he was a little boy. Always self destructive. Always thinking low on himself. All because of his so called parents. How can someone be so low? How can you make a human being think he's not worth a thing? Let alone your child."_

_Meredith wished she could pull those feelings aside but they were stronger than her. When Sadie first told her about the break up she wasn't sure what had happened. She knew she had recently talked to Mark before it happened but she wasn't sure if he had done something or if it was just a coincidence. But when Derek came to her and said they had broken up because 'Mark as always having little expectations on himself' the question remained on her mind._

_Had Mark done something she, Meredith, asked him to for the sake of Lexie? And the break up being a week behind them at that point, with Meredith watching now how they were acting throughout those days, just made her question herself even more._

_*_

_Present Day_

That was exactly what Meredith was feeling right now. Lexie had lost that glow about her. She was just coming home, going to work and back home again. And there was the thing she had just witnessed. Mark Sloan had turned down a gorgeous blue-eyed bonde. She absolutely loathed the fact that that would even threat to go through her mind but she couldn't help but wonder if she had indeed helped anyone with what she had done recently. She kept telling herself that that was the intention.

*

Sadie and Lexie were in the locker room finally enjoying their break. Lexie got up to fix something from her locker when her expression suddenly changed. Sadie knew what it was about.

"Still haven't found it?"

Lexie shook her head.

"I looked at home. Everywhere I could. I'm sorry, Lex"

"He's gonna think I'm holding on to it"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I don't have it to return it"

"You were going to return it?" Sadie asked startled.

"Isn't that the right thing to do?"

"You've been looking for it all this time like crazy to RETURN it?"

"It's not like that's my wildest desire but we're not together anymore, so…"

"Lexie, it was a gift"

"So?"

"So?! Lex, it's not like he gave you an engagement ring. Do you return gifts from people who were friends with you if you for some reason lose touch with them?"

"Well, no…"

"Exactly. You don't. That's yours, Lex"

"Was"

"We'll find it" tears started forming in Lexie's eyes when Sadie said that.

"The truth is I didn't want to return it but I feel like I have to. Like it doesn't belong to me anymore"

"It will always belong to you" Sadie assured. "And stop talking about it in the past. We WILL find it"

Sadie had been so good to her throughout the whole situation and even before that. It all started when she covered for her on the penis incident thing. She never thought they would wind up like that. Lexie felt she had to do something for Sadie. She had to thank her for all she had done. And she was determined to do so.

*

"Oh my God, there is so much to do and not enough time" Meredith said as she walked to Izzie and Cristina.

"There is plenty of time" Izzie said. "We still have five weeks"

"Exactly. _N__o_ time" Mer said with a freaked expression.

"We'll get everything done before that. You've got us to help" Izzie smiled pointing at herself.

"I'm not good at this"

"Meredith! Snap out of it. Breathe" Izzie ordered.

Cristina was just laughing in amusement.

"What have you done already?"

"Nothing?" Meredith whispered.

Izzie smirked. "Calm down. We'll get to it tonight at the house OK? I'll help you make lists. Maybe Sadie and Lexie could help us and if you like Cristina…"

"I'm out of this" Cristina said immediately. "You guys have fun though"

"It's OK Mer, she's probably just going out with Hunt. I promise you we'll have most of those lists done by tonight and we can start working on everything tomorrow"

"OK" Meredith nodded.

"Tell Derek to start working on his guest list"

"When?"

"Right away" Izzie said. "I know it won't be ready for tonight, that takes time. But I would like to at least have an estimative"

"Right"

"And start working on yours too"

"Mine?"

"Yes"

"But who would I invite? There's you, Cristina, Alex, George…"

"Meredith" Izzie snapped.

"OK. List. Got it." Meredith tried to search for people to invite to the wedding on the back of her mind.

*

Mark was sitting behind his desk when he heard a knock on the door.

"Come in"

When he looked at the door his heart jumped, nervosism took over him as he unsteadily stood up. It was her.

"Lexie?"

"Hi" she managed to say. "Can I come in?"

"Sure" Mark didn't know whether he should stand right where he was or walk over to her. "Is everything OK?"

"I wanted to talk to you about something"

"OK" he felt his heart was going to rip off his chest.

"Well, I don't know where to begin" She was making him more nervous by the minute. "The thing is I promised Sadie I would talk to you about something but I never really got the chance since…" she trailed off.

Mark tried to make it easier on her. "I know. Go on"

"The thing is, she asked me to talk to you about…Callie"

Mark's face immediately lit up with a smile.

"What?" she asked uneasily.

"Sadie asked you to talk to me about Callie?"

"That's what I said"

"Well, Callie asked me to talk to _you_ about Sadie"

Lexie understood the irony of the situation as her own face wasn't able to hold the forming smile.

"Really?"

"True thing"

They stared at each other for a couple of minutes. Lexie suddenly started speaking as she broke off from the momentarily spell.

"Sadie likes Callie and she was afraid to talk to her directly. She was afraid she wouldn't be corresponded." Lexie immediately regretted her choice of words.

Mark spoke with that comforting tone he only used with her. "Callie likes Sadie and was herself afraid it was all in her head."

Lexie felt happy. At least things were going right for her friend. No, for both of her friends. If only life were always that simple.

"So" Mark started talking. "What do we do?"

"Sould we tell them?"

"We should. But how?"

"Well you tell Callie you talked to me and there was a green light on the Sadie thing and I'll do the same thing only the other way around"

"Do you think they'll have the courage to come up to one another once they know?"

"I hope they do"

Mark realized the subject had come to an end and that Lexie would slip from him anytime soon now. But he didn't want that. He wanted to prolong what little time they had together now. He wanted to be near her, he needed that.

"I should go and tell Sadie" Lexie suddenly spoke. "She's been wanting this for weeks and she probably thinks by now she wouldn't get any answers."

"Right" Mark tried to hide his disappointment. "And I should tell Callie for the exact same reason"

"OK then"

When she turned around it was like slow motion to him. Her beautiful, silky, brown hair flipping in the air and slowly hitting the side of her neck. Her gorgeous, glassy, dark eyes no longer in the field of his sight. Her delicate, red, warm lips he hadn't tasted in two weeks.

"Lexie?" he called as she made her way to the door.

She turned around. "Yes?"

"Thank you" he said.

"For what?"

"For making that moment come sooner than I expected"

She smiled sweetly and nodded before closing the door behind her.

* * *

**Working on the typing of chap 15 as you read this :D**


	15. Chapter 15

**Here it is! Another chapter. 16 and 17 will follow right after. Some might seem like only transition chapters but I promise I'm getting somewhere.**

**Krista, thank you for your review! Don't worry. Everything is not lost yet! **

* * *

Sadie, Lexie, Meredith and Izzie were all gathered around the center in the middle of the living room. The first thing Lexie had wanted to do when she arrived home was tell Sadie the exciting news but the other three of them were already seated making plans, so she decided she would talk to her later.

"So, how do you want your wedding to be?" Izzie asked happily.

"I don't know" Meredith said as if it were obvious. "Me. Derek. Rings"

Izzie rolled her eyes laughing. "Don't say, Mere" she looked at the other girls. "I mean how do you want it decorated, for instance? Do you like flowers?"

"Flowers sound nice"

"What kind do you like? Which colors?"

"Sunflowers?"

"That's lovely Mere but you can't go with that unless you want to make something at daylight, in an open space. Sunflowers don't really go with churches"

"Why don't I know all these things?" she squeaked. "Why can't I be good at this like you?"

Izzie laughed. "We can't be good at everything"

"That's a good idea Izzie's got there, Death" Sadie out spoke. "Have you considered going with a wedding in the field?"

"I think we would rather go with the church. A place with a saloon. A place with a ceiling"

"See? That's one thing decided" Izzie wrote something down in one of the many papers she had resting in her lap. "But that means we can't go with the sunflowers. So, flower number two?"

"Shouldn't Derek give his opinion as well?"

"Absolutely not" Izzie said determined.

Both Sadie and Lexie laughed.

"I'm sure he'll love whatever you pick" Lexie said. "Besides, it's not the flowers he'll be worrying about nor is it the decoration or whatever"

Meredith looked at her sister, the scene she had witnessed earlier playing in her mind. She tried to scratch that by speaking. "What about daffodils?"

"Daffodils are wonderful" Izzie said excitedly, writing down some more.

"OK, let's see…where do you want the reception to be?"

"The church Derek and I were considering comes along with that. It's right next door and there's a path from inside the church. Derek said he's been to a wedding there and that it's beautiful"

"Awesome" Izzie marked a check next to something. "I'm going to call the decoration place. They come up with the best ideas ever" she continued. "You'll see, I'll just tell them the name of the place and it will become a dream"

As Meredith and Izzie continued discussing, Lexie poked Sadie and mouthed "I have something to tell you"

Sadie eyes sparkled with curiosity. "What?"

"Not here" they continued mouthing to each other.

Sadie jumped out of the couch pronto, pulling Lexie along with her. "We'll be right back"

Izzie was so absorbed in her notes and thoughts that she didn't even notice. Mer just nodded towards them.

The way up to the attic, where they would have more privacy, seemed an eternity to Sadie. When they reached the door she threw Lexie inside and waited for her to talk.

"Are you trying to kill me here?" Sadie asked as Lexie didn't begin to speak immediately.

"I've wanted to tell you since I got home but you guys were already…"

"Lexie!"

"OK. OK" she smirked. "Are you ready?"

"To kill you? Yeah"

Lexie laughed. "I talked to him about that thing"

The excitement about the first part of the sentence in Sadie's eyes suddenly disappeared.

"About _that_ thing?"

"Callie" Lexie specified. "Sorry I didn't do it before. I just…well you know the reasons"

Sadie thought she was dreaming, "You talked to Sloan? Lexie, you didn't have to" as much as she was happy she could imagine what that had been like to Lexie.

"That's OK" Lexie said. "Will you let me get to the good part?"

Sadie felt weak in the knees.

"Callie went to him to talk about the very same thing" she smiled.

"What do you mean?" Sadie needed to be sure Lexie was talking about what she was thinking.

"She asked him to talk to _me_ about you"

"Oh my God! Are you serious?"

"Would I kid about something like this?"

Excitement took over Sadie. She couldn't believe the happiness that was rushing through her body.

"Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God." Sadie started jumping towards Lexie who had a big smile on her face. "Thank you, thank you so much" she said wrapping her arms around Lexie.

"You're welcome" Lexie managed to say against Sadie's screams and jumps.

"What do I do now?" Sadie snapped.

Lexie laughed. "You talk to her"

"Do you think he's already told her?"

Lexie was going to speak but Sadie interrupted.

"No, Lex. I'm not going to ask you to ask him that"

"I wasn't going to say that" although she couldn't deny to herself that the thought crossed her mind. "I was going to say it doesn't matter because she feels the same way"

"I'm afraid to be the one to make the first move"

"Don't be" Lexie assured her. "It's going to be OK specially since you _know_ know the answer is going to be positive"

"God, I hope she already knows. It's easier to meet half way you know?"

Lexie nodded.

"What are you doing here?" Meredith appeared in the door. "We need your help downstairs"

"We're going" Sadie said startled.

"Lexie, can you hold on a second?" she said as Sadie rushed down the stairs.

"Sure"

"I'm sorry" Meredith said.

"What about?"

"I'm sorry you're so sad about your break up"

"Oh, please. You're the one who told me it would end this way eventually, right?"

"I'm still sorry" Meredith said.

"Why the sudden change of heart?"

"What?"

"When you talked to me that day you said I was being naïve and when you first found out about it you didn't seem sorry at all"

"I just…some things came along"

"You're a difficult person to deal with, Mer. I still love you" she slowly turned her back on her sister and started walking down the stairs.

The guilt was consuming Meredith inside. Specially now. _I still love you_. She couldn't get that out of her mind. She thought she was taking care of her little sister but she ended up doing the complete opposite.

*

"What about guests?" Izzie asked as the four of them resumed being around the table.

"That one is hard" Meredith stated. "I don't know who to invite. Just you guys at the hospital"

"I hope that's because_ I'm_ on the hospital now and you would've invited me if I hadn't come to Seattle"

"You know I would"

Sadie laughed. "Good"

"Oh and there's Thatch…" she stopped. "Dad" she looked at Lexie awkwardly.

"You're going to invite HIM?" Sadie asked.

Both Mere and Izzie eyed her.

"Write it down Izzie" Meredith said.

"How about Derek's guests?"

"He said he'd give me the list later today"

"OK. I'll give you guys the weekend to think and discuss" Izzie continued looking at her papers. "But I guess there are some names we can already write down" she began listing while reading out loud.

"Carolyn, Addison…"

"Addison?" Meredith interrupted.

"Yeah. I assume Derek will want to invite her. They are still friends, right?"

"Yep. Sure" Meredith said uneasily.

Sadie looked around confused. "Who's Addison?"

"Ex" Izzie said.

"Oh" she looked at Mer kind of laughing.

"It's OK, it's going to be fine" Meredith was more telling herself that than the others.

"It _is_ going to be OK" Izzie said. "She's happy in LA. Addison's got no business with the Seattle Grace men any longer"

"Seattle Grace _men_?" Sadie asked.

"Yeah, she and Sloan…" Izzie began innocently but stopped talking immediately.

"Who needs a refill?" Meredith got up taking two glasses in her hands.

"I'll help you" Izzie followed with the other two glasses.

Sadie turned to Lexie. "What…"

"Long story"

"Oh, so you know about it?"

"Kind of"

"You've met this Addison person?"

"No"

"What did Izzie mean by…"

"I'll tell you later. Eventually" Lexie said.

The dawn arrived and Izzie and Meredith continued discussing about wedding stuff. Lexie excused herself for she was feeling terribly tired and couldn't take another minute awake.

"Night, Lexie" people said as she climbed up the stairs.

"Hey you" she heard Sadie's voice.

She turned around slowly, hoping Sadie didn't want to know about the Addison story that moment.

"Tomorrow we're going dress hunting"

"Really?" she yawned.

"Yeah, girl. We can't leave it for the last minute"

"You're right" she nodded.

"OK then. Good night" she started climbing down the stairs.

Lexie went up to the attic and threw herself at bed. Despite her state of tiredness, she couldn't sleep at first. There was a lot going through her mind. After turning in bed several times she was finally able to put her thoughts to rest.

She wasn't sure if she was actually dreaming or daydreaming about the last time they had been together. The scene was appearing so clearly in front of her it was almost as though she was watching a play in her mind.

_It was that cold, rainy night. Lightning striking around them as they tried to protect themselves although there was no near shelter and no cabs to be spotted._

_She remembered the kiss they shared in the rain, the cold drops making their way to the corner of their joined lips._

_She could almost feel his warm lips covering hers now. It was so real it was scaring her. She remembered how she had felt that night. Every time their noses touched as he shrank the distance between them the cold she was feeling because of the rain increased as shivers took over her body._

_She remembered how Mark was thankful when a cab approached, how he had taken her hand and led her to be car. How careful he had been. She remarked him being concerned about them catching pneumonia, telling her they had to warm up once they got home._

_But above everything, she remembered the way he smiled when she said she knew a perfect way for them to fight the cold. He walked behind her so she cold get into the cab first and then mumbled the address before locking their lips together one more time._

_Halfway through their ride in the cab Mark noticed Lexie's shivering. He had been so thoughtful, asking the cab driver to turn on the heater and making her rest on his chest while his large arm surrounded the side of her head; his hand placed on top of it as he kissed her forehead._

"_You cold?"_

"_A little"_

"_We're almost home"_

_She smiled pressing herself closer against him._

_She remembered how it felt to be in his arms like that. There was just some sense of safeness. She felt so peaceful and calm when she followed the movement of his chest up and down when he was embracing her. All her agonies seemed to vanish when he held her._

_She couldn't even remember the part where they came out of the cab or the trip up the elevator. She just remembered them already being in the room both still soaking wet. He removed his jacket from her and placed a towel he had retrieved from the bathroom on her shoulders._

"_Where did all this water come from? You're so wet" Mark tried to get the excess of water off her hair by twisting it._

"_Yeah you seem to have that effect on me" she smirked._

"_So not what I meant" Lexie laughed at Mark's sort of shy expression._

"_Shh" she whispered as she got to the tip of her toes and pressed her lips against his. Her hands moved to the end of his shirt to pull it up his head._

"_What's up with all the fabric?" she asked as she removed the other shirt he was wearing._

"_It was really cold" he said between breaths._

"_That's better" she smiled at the sight of his bare chest which was already moving faster. She ran her fingers against it making a moan escape Mark's throat._

_She helped him as he removed her own jacket followed by her blouse. Mark kissed the small protuberance her bra couldn't cover making his way up her neck, past her jaw and over her lips where she hungrily welcomed his tongue to hers to rock together._

_Shoes were off as Mark swept her off her feet and leaned her against the closest vertical piece of hard matter. Lexie was still about to find out what was it that Mark did that drove her the craziest. She knew feeling their bare chests against one another's was definitely on the top five when he removed her bra and moved even closer to her._

_They were both aching for the other when one of Lexie's leg movement made their centers meet. Moans escaped __both mouths._

"_Hold onto me" Mark placed her hands on his back and equilibrated her as he unfastened her jeans. She unwrapped her legs from him so he could pull them down but quickly replaced them were they were._

_Mark moved back and forth with his body against hers once his pants were off. They kissed desperately as he continued the movements that caused Lexie to moan against his lips. _

"_Mark?"_

"_Almost there, baby" he smiled. Marking her wait for a while was something he loved to do._

_Her hands pulled his boxers down while he buried his face against her neck and shoulder._

_Feeling him against the only thing that was separating them, the thin fabric of her panties, made her lose her mind for a second._

_Deciding it was time to end the torture for both of them Mark removed her panties and buried himself inside her right away. Lexie gasped shutting her eyes and taking her hands to the back of his head. Mark moved back and forward quicker and also, this time, up and down. He felt his knees weren't going to be able to take it._

"_Lex, you're gonna have to trust me now"_

"_I do trust you"_

"_OK. Don't panic"_

_Lexie only knew what he was talking about when he started moving down slowly, taking her body along with his. Next thing she knew he was on top of her on the floor, his rocking body against hers never stopping._

"_What are you doing?"_

"_I didn't know for how much long I was going to be able to stand"_

_Lexie laughed and ran her feet through his calves. Mark made that incredible feeling of goose bumps run through both their bodies and fell panting on top of her._

_She kept her eyes pressed together for a while before speaking. "People should reinvent the meaning of getting warm"_

_She found herself thinking of another thing she loved about what she had with Mark and wondered if that one was her favorite. It was the passionate kisses they shared after they had sex, still feeling the throbbing hearts against their chests. Or was it the way he looked at her right after they pulled away from those kisses?_

_It was then that they fell asleep on the floor. Mark woke up a few hours later wanting to get a blanket for them since their temperatures were no longer high._

*

It was a good dream or daydream. Whatever it was she never wanted to forget it. She never wanted to _have_ to forget it.

* * *


	16. Chapter 16

**Not much to say here. Just that I'm getting to the point I wanted to from day one.**

* * *

Meredith was admired on how quickly Izzie worked. She had already called every necessary company for the wedding and half of them were already settled.

"I need your guest list right now or Izzie will kill me" she told Derek when they ran into each other in the hospital.

"It's done" he told her. "I spent the entire night working on it"

"Give it to her before she has a heart attack"

When Derek finally found Izzie he gave her the thick block of paper.

"Excellent" Izzie said excitedly. "I love crowded wedding" she ran her eyes through the list and, not recognizing any of the names, she spoke "who are these people?"

"Family mostly. Friends from New York, friends from LA…you know"

"I have to call the invitation place" she ran to the other direction.

"OK" Derek laughed after she had already disappeared. He realized he had still a little time left before his surgery and walked to Mark's office.

"Hey, man" he greeted.

Mark lifted his eyes from his computer. "Hey"

Derek seemed a little nervous. "So, what's up?"

"Nothing" Mark deadpanned.

"I wanted to ask you something"

"OK"

"Well, you know the wedding is in two weeks and…"

"And?"

"I was wondering. Would you like to be my best man?"

Mark's eyes had been in Derek the whole time but he was _looking_ at his friend. "What?"

"Did I say something wrong?"

"No. It's just. I…are you serious?"

"Why wouldn't I be serious?"

Mark smirked awkwardly. "You wouldn't". There was a brief silence. "Thanks, Derek. It would be an honor"

Derek smiled walking over his friend to pat his back. "Now, I need your help"

"With what?"

"Well, I don't know what to do about, Addison"

"What about her?"

"Well I'm going to invite her but I don't know how. Should I call her? Should I just send her the invitation?"

"No" Mark said appalled.

"No, what?"

"You can't just send her an invitation"

"But…"

"You can't Derek. You just can't"

"So I should call her?"

Mark didn't say anything.

"Oh God" Derek said nervously.

"Don't panic. It's going to be fine, just be honest with her"

"I don't know how to do this"

"There's nothing to know. Just tell her the news and say you're sending the invitation. Trust me, she's going to appreciate the consideration, besides, she knows you and Meredith have been together for a while now, so…"

"How do you know all these things?"

"Well…"

Derek spoke quickly to break the tension. "How twisted is this? Who knew I was going to get advice from Mark Sloan. No offense, of course."

"None taken" Mark smiled. "Are you nervous?"

"What did I just tell you?"

"I didn't mean about that. About the wedding"

"Oh" Derek stopped for a while. "Not really"

Mark looked at him.

"It's going to be a challenge. There wil be hard times, ups and downs, but I believe the joy and happiness will overcome all of that. I love her, you know?"

"Yeah" Mark nodded. Now Derek knew that Mark in fact understood what he was saying. He wasn't just saying he did.

"I have to get to surgery now" Derek said suddenly.

"Yeah" Mark checked his own watch. "Me too"

"See you later. Don't get cold feeted"

"Ha-ha. Back at ya"

*

Mark and Sadie were in the room next to the OR scrubbing in. Sadie was washing her hands while Mark was over the door next to the place where his lab coat was hanging. She noticed he moved something from the pockets of the lab coat to the ones in his scrubs right before walking to the sink to stand beside her.

"Is that some sort of lucky medallion?" she asked.

"What?"

"That thing you just moved to your pocket"

"Oh" Mark pressed his hands to his pocket, feeling what was inside. "Yeah, sort of"

"That's nice". Sadie smiled. "By the way, thank you on the Callie thing"

"That was not me, that was Lexie" he said. "She's the one who came to me to talk"

"Thanks nonetheless"

"So, how are you guys doing?"

"We're doing great" Sadie smiled. "Things are good"

Mark smiled. "I'm glad."

Sadie smiled awkwardly.

"Our patient awaits us" Mark said. He walked past Sadie and held the door open to her with his back. "Let's do this"

Once the surgery was over they were both on the scrubbing room again. Mark removed his gloves and, after washing his hands, Sadie noticed him going through his pocket and feeling whatever it was that was inside.

"I'm sorry, would I be too snoopy to ask what that is?"

Mark's face became pale. "It's just, it's this something I carry"

"Oh, OK." Mark noticed Sadie's uncomfortable expression.

"OK. It's, it's Lexie's bracelet" he took it off his pocket.

Sadie just looked from his face to the bracelet.

"Please don't tell her"

"What-what are you doing with that?"

"I didn't steal it. She left it in my apartment"

"That's odd. She hasn't noticed that one was missing"

Mark's expression was of one who didn't follow.

"She hasn't mentioned anything about a missing bracelet, unlike…" she stopped.

"Unlike?"

"Her locket"

"Her locket?"

"The one you have her"

"What…?"

"She lost it" Sadie said quickly.

"She…"

"Don't be mad at her"

"I'm not mad at her, I'm just trying to put the pieces together."

"She lost it a while ago and was uneasy about telling you. When she decided to tell you she never got the chance because you br…Anyways she feels terrible about it. We've looked for it everywhere but we just couldn't and can't find it"

Mark thought he couldn't feel any worse about himself. But he was wrong. So Lexie was already stressed out about telling him she had lost his gift and he welcomed her that night with the break up talk?

"So that's why she's not using it? I thought it was because…"

"Yeah, I know. No" Sadie said.

"I…do you know where she's lost it?"

"Not really. But I've turned Meredith's house upside down and couldn't find it. Please don't tell her I told you this. She would kill me"

"That's OK" Mark said quietly.

Sadie's pager went off. "Oops" she was glad to leave at that moment. "Gotta go. Excuse me, Dr. Sloan"

*

In the afternoon both Sadie and Lexie had nothing to do so Sadie walked in the locker room announcing her presence.

"So, you're going dress hunting with me or what?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"No"

"Didn't think I had"

"Come on, Grey. Get your butt off that bench"

Lexie got up slowly. "Where are you taking me?"

"Wait and see" Sadie said excitedly signing for Lexie to follow her.

After driving for about 20 minutes Sadie reached an alley filled with wedding dresses stores.

"Wow" Lexie's eyes glowed.

"See?" Sadie clapped her hands together. "Let's go in"

They were taking a break after being to four stores and trying on each ten dresses.

"So are you ever going to tell me the Addison story?"

Lexie rolled her eyes. "There's nothing much to tell, really"

"Tell me anyways"

"In a nutshell, she was Derek's wife but things weren't going so well so she slept with Mark and they all moved to Seattle"

Sadie's jaw dropped. "Not much?"

Lexie eyed her. "It's not a big deal, besides, they all resolved it between them"

"Sorry Grey but I'm gonna need a little more than that"

"You are impossible" Lexie sort of laughed.

"Details, please"

"I don't know any details. I wasn't around when it happened"

"Details of what you know, then"

"All I know is that Derek came to Seattle after finding out about Mark and Addison's…you know. Then Addison came and it looks like Derek and she stayed together for a while. Then Mark came and well, you know, it was weird at first but now everyone is happy and back on their feet."

"Wow" was Sadie's comment. "Mark slept with her while she was married?"

"It's complicated"

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah"

"How's it complicated?"

"He loved her"

Sadie didn't know what to say.

"But she didn't love him back. She loved Derek" Lexie cursed herself mentally as she felt her feelings threat to make their way out of her.

"We should head back" Sadie said.

"Right. Of…" but her voice failed. Her eyes glued to the showcase a few feet away from them.

"Lex?"

"Oh my God, I think I found it" she pointed the direction.

"Wow, that's gorgeous. And look at that one right next to it"

"Let's go check it out"

They headed in the way of the store and made their way in. A few minutes later they were coming out of it with a bag each.

"This is the most beautiful dress I have ever seen"

"Yeah, we're both going to steal all attention from Mere" They laughed.

"Dang, we have exactly 30 minutes to get these home and go back to the hospital"

"Let's go" they started walking faster as they made their way to the parking lot.

*

They made it to the hospital in time. It had gotten kind of crazy in the time they'd been out so the Chief was sending them everywhere and more than one place at a time.

"Grey, I thought I told you to run to OR2"

"But Chief you just told me to go work with Dr. Hunt"

"I did? Oh, sweet Lord! Harris, go with Karev to trauma. Grey, go with Yang. Interns, all of you please just go with your residents"

"What have we got here?" Mark entered the area.

"Knife wound. You think you can remove that without leaving any scars and preferably keeping him alive?"

"That's what I'm here for, Chief"

"Excellent. Grey, follow him" he told Meredith. "Grey's interns, either you follow along or you do as she says"

There was a big commotion at the hospital. People, nurses, families, doctors walking in every direction.

From the distance Lexie could hear the Chief's screams for people either to follow this specific doctor, or pick up supplies, or run labs. It was chaotic.

"What happened here?" Lexie asked.

"Car accident. Drunk people at the bar fighting over soccer teams" he looked down on his patient. "And a fire downtown. Yeah, all in one afternoon. What are the odds?"

"That's horrible" Lexie looked impressed.

"Yeah, a real tragedy" Mark said silently.

"Sloan, are you done with that knife victim already?" The Chief snapped.

"On my way to it, Sir"

"Well hurry up. Focus first at saving the man's life and making sure you'll leave the tissue ready for a later surgery to get it fixed. We need as many ORS as we can get"

"Got it, Chief. Run, Lexie" he said getting her to smile before the doors to the elevator closed. She caught up to Cristina and assisted her and Owen on the less damaged car accident victims.

As the day came almost to an end things were finally getting calmer. Most patients had already gotten their surgery and were now on the recovery rooms. After bumping into a lot of family members and answering all the questions she could and to which she knew the answers Lexie started walking to the locker room. She couldn't wait to get home, take a shower and get a good night sleep.

"Grey, could you please stick around a little longer? We need the much help we can get tonight"

"Sure, Chief"

"Thank you"

After he left she let out a loud sigh. "I need coffee" she reached for the doorknob to get into the locker room when the door suddenly opened before she could do that herself. The sight of Sadie rushing out of the room played before her.

"What the hell?" she asked as Sadie ran down the corridor.

"Gotta do something. See you in a bit"

Lexie looked at the scene and laughed. "OK" she said to herself while entering the room. She closed her eyes for about an hour in there when her pager started going off. It was Derek.

"I hope I didn't disturb you" he said as she reached him.

"No, not at all" she came to walk next to him.

"We haven't worked together since Ian Carmichael, remember?"

"I do" Lexie nodded. "No cases ever since"

"I miss working with you. You're good Lexie"

"Thanks" she couldn't control her getting scarlet.

"When is your intern test taking place?"

"Oh, in approximately 6 to 7 months. Thank God I don't have to worry about it before the wedding." She smiled. "Speaking of which. How are you? Excited?"

"Yes" Derek smiled. "Very"

"Now that I managed to talk to Addison I'm not that nervous. The conversation went well. At least I think it did"

"That's good" Lexie smiled awkwardly.

"Oh, I hope I'm not getting off limits with this. It's just that I wanted her to come but wasn't sure how she was going to take it"

"You're not" Lexie assured. "That's perfectly fine" She waited a little before asking him. "Is everything taken care of tonight?"

"All urgent surgeries were made. So far we haven't lost anybody but many of them are still in the recovery rooms waiting for other surgeries"

"Yeah. This was such a catastrophe. I still can't believe it"

"Having a little more of experience myself I had actually never seen anything like it"

"A little more experience?" Lexie laughed.

Derek laughed back. "Are you kidding me? A couple of another 3 years and you'll beat the back out of all of us"

Lexie shook her head shyly.

"I have to go check on a patient right now, would you like to come along?"

"Sure"

Derek continued talking as they made their way to the recovery center. He stopped by the OR table to take a look at it.

"Sounds like most surgeries are going to be plastic ones now since the life saving part was already taken care of"

"Oh, Dr. Sloan is working on the man with the knife on his neck?"

"It appears to be so. You'd like to watch that? You totally can if you want to"

"Nah" Lexie said.

"You sure?"

"Positive"

"OK then. Follow me"

Lexie was following Derek's pace and listening to what he was saying when he suddenly stopped walking. She nearly bumped herself to him but was able to stop before that happened.

"Dr. Shepherd is everything OK?" Derek remained still looking forward at all times. "Dr. Shep…"

"What are they doing here?" he asked with a disgusted expression, his eyes never leaving the current position.

"Who?" Lexie followed his eyes to come look at a wealthy looking middle-aged couple.

"Who are those?" she asked confused.

Derek suck in air before finally speaking. "Mark's parents"

*

* * *


	17. Chapter 17

**I've been wanting to post this for like forever. Things only get better from now on. Word.**

* * *

The words came out of Derek's mouth with a tone of agony. Lexie watched as the couple approached the place where they were standing, their eyes studying everything.

"Why, why? No good can come from this"

Lexie knew about the stories regarding Mark and his parents and she herself wondered what it was that they wanted.

"Derek!" they heard the feminine voice calling.

He tried to fake a surprised expression. "Mrs. Sloan"

The elder male Sloan shook his hand.

"What brings you to Seattle?" he asked.

"Oh, we just thought it was time for a little visit" the woman smiled. "You look so good. Always have" she continued.

"Thank you" he smiled praying for someone to get him out of there.

"Is that what I think it is?" she lifted Derek's hand and looked at his ring.

Derek wanted to die. "Guilty"

"Who's the lucky girl?"

"You don't know her" Derek said.

"Well I hope you are luckier this time. I'll have to talk to that son of mine so he won't embarrass us again"

Derek and Lexie exchanged uncomfortable looks.

"When is the happy day?"

"We haven't set a date yet" Derek lied.

"I'm happy to see you're getting on with your life. For some that's simple. Others…"

"I'm sorry. Would you excuse us, please? We need to get back to a case but I'll see you both around"

Derek pulled Lexie along with him. "I sure do hope not" he said so only she could hear.

"Should we tell him?"

"Yeah. He has to be warned. Could you please do it, Lexie? I didn't really lie when I said I had to get back and I think this is better if made in person"

"Sure. I'll tell him"

"Thank you"

After Lexie nodded and walked away Derek smiled mildly.

"Dr. Sloan is on surgery" the nurse was telling Lexie. "That trauma patient from earlier collapsed from what I've heard"

"Could you please tell him once he's done that I need to talk to him?"

"Sure"

"Thank you"

Lexie walked to the OR board and noticed Mark had just gotten into surgery 30 minutes ago. "Damn it. Make this one quick"

She then heard those familiar voices and the recently arrived couple stood beside her looking at the board themselves.

"Dr. Schiffer. Do you know that one?"

"Never heard of him"

"Grey, Bailey, Hunt, Torres…" Lexie was shocked at how oblivious they were to their own son.

"Look" the man pointed at the board. "He's on surgery now"

"I don't understand what that means" The woman said while reading the medical definition to Mark's surgery. "Young girl…" Lexie thought she was dreaming when she saw the woman turning to her. "Do you have the knowledge to tell us what that means?"

"It means Dr. Sloan is performing a tissue repairment. Restoring the damaged skin for…"

"And how long does that take usually?"

"Long. It's a very meticulous work"

"The board says it's only been 30 minutes" the woman told her husband.

"We'll wait" the man assured her. They were about to turn around when a nurse walked to the board and erased Mark's name from it and began writing something else.

"Excuse me" Mark's mother asked the nurse. "What happened?"

"Ma'am?"

"Well she told us that surgery would take long and yet you're here erasing the name and it's only been 30 minutes"

"They lost the patient" the nurse explained.

Lexie's eyes widened. "Excuse me" she fled from the scene and walked to where that first nurse was.

"Dr. Sloan is already out of surgery"

"I know" Lexie said. "Did you tell him I wanted to talk to him?"

"I did. He must be looking for you"

"Thank you". Lexie rushed down the corridor.

"Where are you going in such a hurry?" Sadie asked Lexie.

"Were you working with Dr. Sloan just now?"

"Yes"

"Where did he go after the surgery?"

"I don't know" Sadie said confused. "What's wrong?"

"There's something I need to warn him about. Talk to you later"

Lexie continued walking through the floors, seeking for Mark but obtaining no success.

"Damn it, where are you?" she asked herself. When she walked past the OR board another time she noticed his parents were no longer there and that Derek was on surgery.

She spent a good time searching for him when her eyes finally spotted him.

"Dr. Sloan" she nearly shouted in relief. "Thank God"

"Lexie, is everything OK?" he asked concerned. "The nurse told me you were looking for me and that was a while ago"

Before Lexie could say anything they heard that squeaky voice calling. "Mark"

Both Mark's and Lexie's hearts froze. Mark thought he was imagining things. Lexie couldn't believe she wasn't able to find him just a single minute in advance. She wished there was something she could do when she saw Mark's expression of horror.

"I've been trying to tell you" she mouthed to him before his parents were within reach.

"Don't you give your mother a hug?" she trapped Mark around her arms. He was motionless.

"You haven't changed a bit" his father said studying him.

"What's the matter with you? The cat ate your tongue?"

After a while Mark finally spoke. "No. I'm just…this is a big surprise"

"Looks like everything's the same with you" his mother said. "What's going on with your life?"

"Nothing"

"You are getting to a certain age, Mark. Are you going to spend your days trapped in your boring routine or are you up to some life changing experiences?"

Mark turned to Lexie. "Hey, could you please complete this chart for me?" he handed it to her. "I'll be with you soon"

"But…"

"Please" Mark said it that way that made her heart melt inside.

Against her will she took the chart from this hands and left him alone with his parents.

"That girl has been everywhere _we've_ been since we arrived. How nosy. Who is she anyways?" his mother asked.

"Since when have you been here?"

"It's been a few hours" she said.

"Are you going to tell us what's going on in your life or what?" his father out spoke.

"I already told you. Nothing"

Mark's mother looked disappointed. "Why nothing? Do you want to die being just, you know, what you are today?"

"Excuse me?"

"You know what I'm talking about. You're just Mark Sloan, plastic surgeon. Final dot."

"You've come all the way here to tell me that?"

"Actually, we hadn't come to Seattle in a while and we figured we'd come talk to you since you were here"

"How thoughtful"

"Derek's engaged again. Good for him. Try not to sleep with this wife this time"

Mark didn't say anything as his mother continued. "You know, maybe this all makes sense now. Maybe it's karma. Derek's getting all the good things and…"

"Did someone say my name?" Derek appeared out of nowhere.

"Ah, Derek. We were just telling Mark how happy we are about your engagement"

"Really?" Derek looked at his friend who had no expression whatsoever.

"By the way, we read that article about the Shepherd method. Congratulations. We were so proud. When we work hard we get what we deserve. Sorry for your losses, but don't feel bad, brain surgery is a very delicate thing"

Derek kept smiling uncomfortably.

"I've heard you lost a patient today, Mark"

He continued not saying a word.

"Is it really that hard to keep someone alive? After all, from what I've heard, it was a minor procedure…"

"Well you've heard wrong Mrs. Sloan. Besides, there was this huge accident and the patient had recently gone through a delicate surgery"

"Sorry to interrupt" Sadie joined the group. "Dr. Sloan, Dr. Webber is looking for you" she was about to leave when Derek shot her a panicked look. "And you too Dr. Shepherd"

Mark started walking away still silent trying not to erupt.

"Mark, we have reservations for the Assaggio at nine. For us three"

"Oh, I would love to. But I've got plans" he said not looking back.

*

"Start talking" Sadie told Lexie when she entered the locker room.

"Did you do as I asked?" Lexie wanted to know.

"I did"

"And did you talk to the Chief…?"

"I didn't have to. He was already looking for him anyways. Would you please explain what's happening?"

"Those were his parents. And their relationship is terrible. They had already started attacking him but he asked me to leave. I can only imagine where that got. Someome had to help him"

"What's with parents and doctors at Seattle Grace Hospital?"

Lexie shrugged. "Good question" she started to drift into her thoughts. "Should I go talk to him?"

"Do you want to?"

"He may want to be alone"

"Or he may be needing someone next to him"

"He's got Derek"

"It's not the same"

"How can you know?"

"Lexie, please. It's not the same"

"How about Callie?"

"Lexie, if you want to go, you should go. This parents thing, how bad is it?"

"It's bad"

"Bad enough to make him care?"

"You know how it is, he probably will try to show it does nothing to him but I know he's bothered when it comes to his parents"

"Then go"

"What if he doesn't want me to? What if he thinks I'm pathetic for being so freaking...stupid?"

Sadie laughed shaking her head. "Oh, Lexie..."

"I'm not doing anything. I'm overreacting"

"You're the one with the best knowledge to make that decision"

Lexie didn't want to talk about it anymore. "What was it with you rushing out of this room earlier?"

"I needed to go to the bathroom"

"That's why you had this huge smile on your face?"

"They don't call me crazy Sadie for nothing"

"Right"

"Gotta run Grey. I promised Izzie I would get home early today to help her with more wedding stuff. When she asked who had a free afternoon today I should have figured it was not about fun"

Lexie laughed. "Bye Sadie, see you later"

After Sadie had left she continued seated in the bench of the locker room.

She kept asking herself whether to do or not what she wanted to. She was slamming her feet to the floor making an annoying repetitive sound had anyone been in the room to listen to it.

*

"Have you seen Mark?" Derek asked Meredith.

"No, why?"

"I can't find him and his phone is off"

"What happened?"

"His parents came to town"

"Oh" Mer looked disturbed.

"God, I hate them. They did it all over again. They just started attacking him, just like that. Perfect timing to upgrade his self-esteem"

"What did they say?"

"In a nutshell? That he's mediocre"

"And he just took it? I'd figure he was not the type to not defend himself"

"Oh but this is different. Mark has always been like this when it came to his parents. It's like they have some sort of supernatural power over him. He just listens to them. Worse, he believes them"

"Isn't there something _you _can do?"

"You haven't met them. They're just. Wow it gives me the chills to even think about it"

"It can't be that bad"

"Trust me, its worse"

"Are they staying for too long?"

"I do hope not"

"And Mark's disappeared?"

"I've asked everyone if they have seen him." He shook his head. "And, like I've said, no answering his phone"

"He probably just needs some time alone"

"I just want to make sure he's fine"

"He probably isn't. But he'll get there" problems with parents was home to Mer.

"I hope he doesn't make anything stupid"

"Like what?"

"I don't know. What do you do when you are facing these problems?"

"Drink a lot"

"Well then. For instance, like drinking a lot and getting behind the wheel"

"Relax, Derek. He's not going to try to kill himself"

"God, I know. That's not what I'm saying. But he could drive under influence"

"Why don't you call Joe's and ask him if he was there?"

"Good idea. One minute"

Mer nodded and waited. "Nope." Derek said a few moments later. "No Mark at Joe's"

"See?"

"He could have gotten his drinks someplace else"

"You're being paranoid, Derek"

"I know. I'm sorry. It's not me. I'll stop now"

"It's OK to be worried. I just don't want you to freak out about something that isn't necessary to freak out about. I'm sure he's just in someplace quiet to think a bit by himself"

"You're right. Thanks, Mer. I love you"

"I love you too"

*

"Derek there you are" when he heard that voice he nearly ran.

"Mrs. Sloan, still here?"

"I can't find my son anywhere. He just took off in that rude way earlier." She sounded appalled.

_I wonder why_. Derek thought.

"Have you seen him?"

"No, ma'am. He must be very busy. Seattle Grace is just like that sometimes. No one can get in touch with no one."

"Well if you see him tell him the reservations for tonight are still up and we're expecting him"

"Certainly, Mrs. Sloan. Not sure if I'll see him though"

"Would you like to join us for diner, instead?"

"I…what?"

"Join us for diner. Since our stubborn son seems to not care about us"

"Thanks for the offer but I should spend the night with my fiancée"

"She could come too. I would love to meet her"

"I thought you said the reservations were for three"

"Oh, Derek. I'm sure they will arrange that if I call the place. It's me you know?"

"Right" Derek couldn't believe how self righteous that woman was. "Really, thank you but we've got a lot of things to do"

"I understand. It's a perfect time that one. The engagement, the honey moon. All you want to do is to be around each other 24/7"

"I knew you would understand. Thanks again. Excuse me but I should get going. Nice seeing you again"

"OK. Bye Derek, see you tomorrow"

"Tomorrow?"

"Yes. Or the day after that. We've decided to stick around for a while"

"Oh, that's wonderful" _A__nd you are going to keep coming to the hospital, why exactly?_ The voice inside of Derek was panicking.

"Until then, then"

"Have a lovely evening"

"Yeah, you too"

*

At night, when her shift had finally come to and end, she walked to her car and started the ignition. It was like her car was driving itself to that place. She didn't even have to think. Next thing she knew she was already pulling over the nearest vacated spot in the corner of the place's street.

She walked past those doors she so intimately knew like she had done so many times before. The place looked the same but there was something about it. It was somewhat darker. She put the keys she had retrieved from under the "welcome" rug in the table next to the door. That movement caused her to have a déjà-vu.

Going deeper into the place, she walked slowly through the long corridor –the way to the room she was heading to so clear in her mind- another path she had taken so many times before. The only difference was her heart had never beaten faster as she made that way. And it only kept going faster as her hand reached for the doorknob.

She was now sure. Within the darkness of the room, resting in bed more precisely, was his silhouette. He was facing the side of the room opposite to the door. She was silent but not with the purpose for him not to notice he presence; she was only trying to respect his peace.

He knew it was her as she walked closer to the bed, quietly setting her belongings aside. She was now right next to the bed, watching his immobile body. The only sound in the room being their breathing. She had never seem him like that and that just hurt her to her very core. All she wanted was to make it all go away.

Slowly sitting beside him, his back still turned on her, she took a glimpse at his face. His eyes were open and she noticed there was something different about them. The vivid blue had turned into a dark shade of gray. There was also something about its conformation; emotion emaning from them.

With her thumbs she caressed his cheekbone taking along the few tears that instantly flowed to her touch, making them go away. Looking back a few months, when he had asked her why she was talking to him she would never had thought they would be like that now. That he would let her, of all people, see him in his most vulnerable moment.

She kept caressing the skin below his eyes trying her best to make him fell better. She hated the pain his parents had and were causing him. Exhaling, she rested her chin on his shoulder keeping her eyes on his at all times.

Neither of them said anything. There was a light outside that lit the darkness of the room briefly. She moved her hand up for a few moments and ran the tip of her fingers across his temple while her other hand continued caressing his face only now she was using the back of her hand and fingers.

A smile came across her face when Mark for the first time let his eyes rest shut. She kept looking at him adoringly fighting to keep strong as she mouthed the words _I love you_ to the dark. Her head moved a bit as she rested it on top of his own, her chin touching the encounter of his neck and shoulder. Her hands, not even for a second, moved away from his face.

* * *

**TBC**


End file.
